Blackwings aren't doing very well competitively right now. Hopefully, this changes with The Shining Darkness, as it releases Breeze the Gentle Wind and Blackwing Treasure, two cards which will give Blackwings a big boost. I'm going to list some fun tech cards for BW that I've thought up of, but they may not be very good. I think that it might be worth doing a lot of random things to see what works best. A basic tenet though, for BW, is you have to run 3x Shura, Bora, Kalut, and 1x Gale as basically the necessities. On Pojo, I saw someone using 1x Bora (for less clogged hands) this is a really bad idea since Bora gives high BWW searches. He also did 2x Shura, and 2x Kalut in other builds. I have no idea why he would want to do that. I'm pretty sure that altering the number of BW's played isn't the best course of action. I really shouldn't be bashing on him though since a lot of my teches are kinda weird too.
My first idea is Blackwings + Tragoedia. This idea was inspired by Jae Kim. The logic is that by having BWW, all your Blackwings float, keeping Trag's attack high. You can also tutor for the level you want to steal, as there are a lot of commonly played 2/3/4's. I added Reckless Greed, allowing you to draw more. It's also a Sakuretsu when used with Tragoedia. Last of all, it can help you hit Black Whirlwind, and etc. The skipping 2 draw phases might be a turn-off, so I guess you could try Jar of Greed.I tested this deck and it did moderately well against the other top decks. It really gave Blackwings a speed boost. However, other players (particularly CuDi`) would prefer Jar of Greed in the spot.
Tragoedia also helps stop the OTK's that are running around this format, so good card.
The next idea isn't really that great but it's worth mentioning. It's Mask of Darkness. Mask lets you recycle your Icarus Attacks, Royal Oppressions, and the staple Traps. It sounds decent in theory, but it might flop. I learned about this idea from 25Strat. Not to sure about this idea, but it's worth a mention. It would be better if Crush was still around.
However, Blackwings run a lot of Trap cards, so it might be a pretty decent idea to main.
Mask of Darkness isn't that bad of a card though, and it's a 1-1. The list that 25Strat used contained only a single teched copy of Mask of Darkness. If I were to try the deck out, I would use 2 copies for more consistency (and also so I could see what actually happens due to the inclusion.
Light-Imprisoning Mirror is actually pretty good in BW. By maining it, you can defeat Lightsworn and anti-meta decks more easily. It also is effective against Chaos builds, especially those that use Ryko (which is the majority of the competitive ones.)
I would think about maining 2 Light-Imprisoning Mirror in Blackwings. It helps defeat LS, pretty much the dominant deck of the format, and it also beats a lot of other ones. Too bad it makes you weaker against Zombies (since it is a totally dead card then.)
The last tech I have is Banisher of the Radiance. This card pretty much destroys the meta. Unfortunately, he has a relatively low attack score - 1600. His associate, Banisher of the Light, has 100 attack and 2000 defense. That's too slow, since by the time you set it, LS can already wreck you, and so can ZOMBIES. wlsack has suggested playing triple Banisher with triple Waboku. This might become good. In theory, it should smash the top decks, but it might not work as well in practice.
Methods: Doomsday Method: (Token generation + D-Hero engine) A friend of mine has incorporated Enemy Controller and Cyber Valley into this build for viable token outlets.
Hamster Method: Hamster + Bubonic Vermin = Instant Plasma. This idea comes from wlsack, of Pojo and currently Player's Legacy forums. This idea is also pretty good.
Personally, I prefer the Doomsday Method due to superior speed, but the Hamster Method can incorporate Cat and Chaos Sorcerer.
Underground Arachnid is really good. All the LV 4 Insects suck though. We need Armored Bee. Armored Bee + Dark Simorgh + D-Hero engine + Underground Arachnid.
The Elemental Hero Fusions work with GB's. Prisma + Miracle Fusion + GB line-up + AZ/Great Tornado/Gaia.
There's been a lot of predicting online from the website Pojo Forums over what would be the best banlist. Personally, I feel that a minimalist banlist hitting only the problem cards, and not killing any of the top decks, should be implemented.
However, there's been a lot of doubts that Judgment Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon will be banned, due to statements made by Konami representative Kevin Telwart. Even though I prefer that these high impact cards be placed on the banlist, I can see why he thinks they shouldn't. Having high impact monsters is actually pretty fun, and even though it sucks to get "sacked" or have your opponent draw them at just the right time, I can understand his point of view.
Another thing I've been seeing I've been seeing is calls for Heavy Storm being banned. I strongly disagree to this, since Heavy prevents backrow overextension, and it takes skill to get the +1/2 off of it.
Another call if for Brain Control to be banned. I strongly AGREE to this, since Brain Control is the best card to topdeck. The 800 cost is basically totally ignored, since you would be winning the game after this move. It's really unfair how one card can wreck a perfect field.
Now, I'm going to show two lists. The first one is what my idealized list would be. However, this list is very impractical since it involves banning many cards. Although I'm fairly happy (more happy than most) about how Konami runs the game, I've noticed that they both dislike banning cards.
Other thoughts I feel about the game are that 1-1 Spells should be at a higher numer (not counting MST because of how it's a Quick-Play, giving it an unfair advantage.) The card I have in mind is Smashing Ground. I feel it should go to 3. Fissure has been at 3 the whole format, and nothing has happened at all. Smashing is only slightly better than (although, due to low defense levels, this gap has been shortened.) It's also reasonable that it might go to three.
A card in Japan, known as Field Roar Deity Raven is incredibly powerful. It allows the discard of cards to boost his level and attack. He is a Tuner, and his attack can get very high. Even better, it's discard is a cost, not an effect. As a result, he can be used in Dark World decks, Fiend Roar Deity decks (obviously) and Infernity decks. Infernity already has a lot of powerful support, and might be Tier 1 next format. Raven promotes an Infernity format. Also, Raven is highly splashable in other decks. As a result, it will go to 1 in the OCG (hopefully.)
There's also been a lot of talk about randomly moving Banned/Limited cards up to higher numbers since they don't do much (Tsukyomi, Thousand-Eyes Restrict, etc.) I'm all for this, since it increases the card pool. If they do prove to be problems (somewhat doubtful) they can be re-banned.
Last of all, a lot of people are bashing Elemental Hero Stratos and his best friend, Destiny Hero - Malicious. In my opinion, the engine isn't much of a problem anymore. Ideally, we wouldn't have it, but it's pretty much fine and here to stay. Also, an AZ format is predicted (AZ = Absolute Zero.) I don't believe this, since AZ was in Japan for a very long time, but it's meta is still LS and Eatos.
GETTING RID OF THE BOSSES:
Above are the main boss cards of the current top decks. In my opinion, the first should be banned. Judgment Dragon causes a lot of unndeserved wins.
Brionac should be banned too, because it promotes the Brionac OTK. Even if the deck only went x-3 at 1 (maybe 2) Shonens, OTK's are basically wrong and should be stopped by the banlist.
Black Whirlwind is a card you can't ban, or else it kills Blackwings. I think sending it to 1 would be the best move overall.
However, in reality, this isn't going to happen. Kevin Telwart has stated on multiple occassions that JD doesn't hurt the game as much as some cards he cited on the banlist. This means that JD is either here to stay, or that he is moving a lot of cards off the banlist. In my opinion, both will happen (similar to Breaker unlimitation.) He also pointed out that after 3 Brionacs were allowed, the meta wasn't destroyed. Ideally, we move Brionac to 1 then, since it's become the new go-to Synchro after Goyo. He completely eclipses the strengths of Iron Chain Dragon and Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth.
Black Whirlwind was a card a lot of people wanted to send to 1 at the beginning of the format. However, since Blackwings only captured 1 spot in the Shonen, and only 2 the last Shonen before, I feel that their power has waned. However, we still need to hit it, or else risk a similar thing such as last format occuring (LS only got a few spots, it went untouched, now look.) I feel Black Whirlwind to 1/2 would help stop that. (Probably an outright limit, but maybe 2 since they aren't as good now might be the Konami line of thinking.) The problem with Blackwings are that a lot of their cards are around the same strength, so it's hard to decide what to hit.
Ideally: Judgment to 0. Brionac to 0. Black Whirlwind to 1.
Probably: Judgment to 1. Brionac to 1/3. Black Whirlwind to 1/2
My IDEAL LIST:
Banned: Brain Control Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier Dark Armed Dragon Judgment Dragon
Limit: Black Whirlwind Fiend Roar Deity Raven
Unlimit: Smashing Ground
Also with some random moves up from Banned, Limited, or Semi-Limited that I'm too lazy to mention. (Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Mask of Darkness, etc.)
PROBABLE LIST: (Even though I generally hate to predict the banlist)
Banned: Brain Control
Limit: Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier Burial from the Different Dimension (due to abuse in a lot of decks) Dark Hole (Boost Starlight Road sales?!) Mezuki (possibly) Judgment Dragon Fiend Roar Deity Raven (if they are smart about it) Stardust Dragon (due to Starlight Road release)
Semi-Limit: Black Whirlwind Tragoedia (possibly since they hate how it's in everything, a random semi-limit) Random hit to LS (to help balance it.) <-- Possibly Honest Random hit to LS (to help balance it.) Random hit to BW (possibly)
Unlimit: A few random cards, probably including Mask of Darkness
This is a post-script about another issue.
Charge of the Light Brigade =/= Reinforcement of the Army
Charge of the Light Brigade is needed in 3 (though they might be able to live with 2) because LS plays on a clock much faster than the 40 minute game clock. LS needs to win before they deck out. Charge gets them the necessary pieces so that they can proceed to win. They need as many copies of this card, and Recharge, as possible because of their "clock".
Reinforcement of the Army is different because Warriors don't need to win in a certain amount of time. You could ban Stratos and then put RotA to 3 is the majority opinion. My opinion is that RotA at 3 is fine already. RotA wasn't even played in Tele-DAD for much of the format, until the last Jump. There, Ryan Spicer's second place deck, Synchro DAD, got 2nd, maining RotA instead of Teleport. Getting the search for Stratos/Dark Grepher isn't that big of a deal in my opinion.
Recently starting my own Yu-Gi-Oh! blog and hopefully this will grow really big. First post.
I'ma introduce myself, I'm a big GB fan, not going to show my real name on the internet though. Recently, Gladiator Beasts made it big at the Shonen, recieving a Top 16. This was the first Gladiator Beast top the whole format. It was an innovative anti-meta GB. I heard some rumors saying that See Yeem bribed/cheated to get his spot, but I disagree. He put up a decent fight in his Top 16 match, and also, there is little to no actual proof that he cheated, other than people bashing his decklist.
The decklist: See Huang Yeem
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1 Gladiator Beast Darius 2 Gladiator Beast Equeste 1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1 Gladiator Beast Retiari 1 Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 3 Gladiator Beast Laquari 1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind 1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Smashing Ground 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 3 Gladiator Proving Ground 3 Shrink 2 Book of Moon 2 Fissure 1 Brain Control
1 Torrential Tribute 1 Mirror Force 1 Solemn Judgment 2 Bottomless Trap Hole 3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2 Dimensional Prison 2 Waboku 1 Dust Tornado 1 Call of the Haunted
His side was typical, but it included Heavy Storm, not to mention Banisher of the Radiance and Icarus Attack as other interesting choice.
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1 Gladiator Beast Darius 2 Gladiator Beast Equeste 1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1 Gladiator Beast Retiari 1 Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 3 Gladiator Beast Laquari 1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind 1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
This is a somewhat typical lineup for Anti-meta GB. An interesting decision he made is that he opted to side Kycoos instead of maining them. This was something I found rather strange. A good choice he made was maining Gale, making siding Icarus a lot easier. Since my version won't be siding Icarus however, we can take that out (to make room for Kycoo. Kycoo is such a good card in today's meta. Another good option for this is, surprisingly, a single teched Test Tiger. Drawing 2 Test Tiger will often lead to losing the game, but with 1, you can drop Bestiari and potentially OTK or at least wipe the board. Since this new Anti-meta variant is based on consistency, Test Tiger in 1 is a smart option. Another thing I noticed was that he used Gladiator Beast Laquari in triplicate. I would prefer having it at 2, since it's not as critical to tag in and out as it is to drop Kycoo to stop GY options and Necros (which hurt GB.)
-1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind -1 Gladiator Beast Laquari
+2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer +1 Test Tiger
Now, we have 16 Monsters. This is one more than See Yeem's 15. However, Test Tiger is more or less a S/T, so we're still even here.
1 Smashing Ground 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 3 Gladiator Proving Ground 3 Shrink 2 Book of Moon 2 Fissure 1 Brain Control
Now, we move onto Yeem's spells. Something that immediately strikes me as something I wouldn't play is Shrink of Book of Moon. Book of Moon is a lot more versatile than Shrink. For my own playstyle, I would play 3x Book, and 0 Shrink. Another card I don't like is Fissure and Smashing Ground. 1-1's fail to cut it this format because swarms often consist of 3-4 monsters, and you'd need to drop all your 1-1's to fix it.
Instead, we should play something like Dimensional Fissure or Ancient Forest, cards that are pretty good in the main. Personally, I like D-Fissure. D-Fissure is like Kycoo in Spell form. It helps to wreck the meta, which is highly Graveyard reliant. D-Fissure won't conflict with Gorz, because they need to kill the backrow in order for them to attack/SS monsters, because they can't summon/or do anything with D-Fissure on the field. 2 is optimal in my opinion, since drawing 2 is kinda dead, and the deck doesn't rely on D-Fissure at all.
A popular tech card this format is My Body as a Shield. It can also stop them from Bottomlessing Besti. I would main 1. Heavy Storm is always needed in the main unless you are really Continous heavy. (2 isn't heavy.) I understand that Yeem kept it sided for the bluff factor (to stop them from overextending their backrow in fear that he was holding Storm) but I prefer actually having a physical impact on the field.
-3 Shrink -3 Fissure -1 Smashing Ground
+2 D-Fissure +1 Book of Moon +1 My Body as a Shield +1 Heavy Storm
Now, we have 11 Spells. That's a fairly solid number. Keep in mind that right now, we have 27 cards overall.
1 Torrential Tribute 1 Mirror Force 1 Solemn Judgment 2 Bottomless Trap Hole 3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2 Dimensional Prison 2 Waboku 1 Dust Tornado 1 Call of the Haunted
Yeem has 14 Traps. Since having 40 cards is very important, we need to cut one. I would say Mirror Force gets the cut. I like the card a lot, but it's weak to Brionacs. Also, I would play 3x Waboku, 2x War Chariot, since I would like to tag out more than negating effects, and only 2 are needed anyways.
I like Yeem's Dust Tornado tech to clear the backrow of Royal Oppression in case he plays anti-meta. It can also be used to set Chariot, etc in the end so he can play it. Brilliant tech there.
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 2x Thunder King Rai-Oh 2x Gladiator Beast Laquari 2x Gladiator Beast Equeste 1x Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1x Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 1x Gladiator Beast Retiari 1x Gladiator Beast Darius 1x Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1x Test Tiger 1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
3x Gladiator Proving Ground 3x Book of Moon 2x Dimensional Fissure 1x Brain Control 1x Heavy Storm 1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Waboku 2x Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2x Dimensional Prison 2x Bottomless Trap Hole 1x Torrential Tribute 1x Dust Tornado 1x Solemn Judgment 1x Call of the Haunted
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