More Broken than Pot of Greed

So after browsing through the new releases in Photon Shockwave, I came across Fragment of Greed.

Fragment of Greed (Continuous Spell)

"During your Draw Phase, place 1 Greed Counter on this card when you perform your normal draw. When this card has 2 or more Greed Counters, you can send this card to the Graveyard to draw 2 cards."

I told my friends how this cards was more "broken" than the original Pot of Greed. Mind you, this was a joke as the art does depict a shattered Pot of Greed. However, I got such a strong reaction that this was a BAD card that, quite frankly, I'm disappointed at them.

Here we have a more balanced, splashable version of Pot of Greed. It may not be part of some game-ending combo, but it's far from being unplayable. From that logic, Six Samurai United is a bad card. Just the other I had a game against someone that was playing a Six Samurai deck. Everytime he attempted to summon a Six Samurai and start gaining Bushido Counters, I negated the summon with Solemn Warning. Because he couldn't net any card advantage from his Six Samurai United and Gateway of the Six he subsequently lost. I myself was trying out dubkdad1's most recent Volcanic variant.

Now does that mean that Six Samurai United is a bad card? Of course not. But you can't always use the "this card counters that" argument in this game. Things just don't always play out that way.

It's a solid card, and it's worth playing. I would play it, not in anything I'm running at the moment due to space issues, but it's something I might consider running in the future.

Wouldn't you rather have you opponent waste their Mystical Space Typhoon on the Fragment of Greed you just played than your set Solemn Warning? I'd like to think so.

Just watch out for that pesky Giant Trunade.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Knowledge is Power

Tech Genus Hyper Librarian (Spellcaster-Type/DARK/Level 5/ATK 2400/DEF 1800)

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters

While this card is face-up on the field, draw 1 card each time a Synchro Monster is Synchro Summoned.

So Tech Genus Hyper Librarian is the latest crazy that's sweeping the OCG, replacing copies of Magical Android in most players' Extra Decks. Why? Because it's combilious!

Stat-wise Librarian is almost a carbon copy of Android, having 100 extra DEF, but the beauty lies in 2 differences:

1. The Effect
2. The Type

Being a Level 5 generic Synchro Monster is a real blessing as it essentially makes Normal Summoning a Junk Synchron equivalent to Special Summoning a Level 5 Synchro. Since it's so easy to summon, it's easier to gain even more card advantage from it, but I'll come back to that in a moment.

Now in the past I've attempted to construct a deck based around tuning Junk Synchron and Synchro Fusionist to search for Miracle Synchro Fusion. However, at the time Magical Android, Ally of Justice Catastor, and Junk Warrior were my only Level 5 options, and MSF is often a dead draw without the right materials or if your opponent doesn't destroy it (they might get cautious of your set cards after Game 1). It was then after looking through some old cards that I came across this beauty:

Magicat (Spellcaster-Type/LIGHT/Level 2/ATK 600/DEF 500)

If this card is sent to the Graveyard for the Synchro Summon of a Spellcaster-Type Synchro Monster, you can return 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard to the top of your Deck.

See it yet? With Magician of Faith and Dark Magician of Chaos banned, recovering Spell Cards is often a costly endeavor. Thanks to Hyper Librarian, however, the synergy is just amazing. You can easily reuse cards like Monster Reborn over and over, and when you're done gaining card advantage you can just synch Librarian with Formula Synchron for Arcanite Magician and gain even more advantage. 

Not bad for an archetype card, eh?

Remember players, the game ends with you.

It's a TRAP!

A while back I posted about how Chain Whirlwind is excellent tech in a format where people spam Mystical Space Typhoon like there's no tomorrow. Unfortunately as time progressed players have begun to realize the potency of Trap Stun to better protect their plays. Running into the occasional Jinzo also completely fazes Chain Whirlwind. Facing such situations I went back and looked at some builds I ran in the past for some ideas to counterattack this situation. It was then I rediscovered this beauty:

Back around the time just before Synchro Monsters were introduced to the TCG I experimented with a deck that focused on cards that punished my opponents when my cards were destroyed. In addition to Dark Coffin I ran cards such as Smoke Grenade of the Thief and Blast with Chain. Gearfried the Iron Knight and Kuraz the Light Monarch made the deck flow nice and smoothly. The ultimate reason I scrapped the deck was because I ran mono-Warriors and it was difficult to search for the appropriate monster in certain situations when Reinforcement of the Army was limited. Another problem was the limited amount of self S/T removal as many of the cards typically used for such purposes (MST and Heavy Storm) were limited at the time. After a few trial runs I took the deck apart and stored them away.

The game has gone through many changes since then. Now we have the newly reprinted Gold Sarcophagus  at our disposal, meaning that a set Dark Coffin that manages to survive destruction for two turns can serve as fodder for Kuraz without having to lose card advantage. DREV also introduced Double Cyclone which can set off Dark Coffin whenever you wish.

Still not convinced?

Well what if I told you that Dark Coffin cannot have it's effects negated by Jinzo, Royal Decree, Trap Stun, Thought Ruler Archfiend, Stardust Dragon, Prime Material Dragon, My Body as a Shield or any Counter Trap?

Not bad now eh?

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Double or Nothing

With Heavy Storm now banned, I've been seeing a LOT of Mystical Space Typhoon spamming now that the latter's been semi-limited. The solution? Chain Whirlwind.

I'll admit, I was surprised when most players overlooked this common card in Duelist Revolution, but it's quickly proved to be quite potent. In an age where player set without fear, turning your opponent's 1-for-1 removal into a 2-for-3 can be quite devastating, if not unexpected.

It certainly makes up for the lack of mass S/T removal, though there are other options. The newly unlimited Black Rose Dragon also comes to mind, though you'll need to watch out for Starlight Road.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

UPDATE: Apparently teching a copy of Chain Whirlwind in your Six Samurai deck isn't a half bad idea, especially when Hand, Yaichi, Kamon, and Irou can easily fulfill the activation requirements.

Go with the Flow

The notion of card advantage is not exclusive to Yu-Gi-Oh! Having more resources than your opponent can be very beneficial in a number of games and even in war. More cards means more options and that can be critical in determining which side will be victorious. However, more does not always equal better. If while dueling someone, you find yourself with six Gadgets in hand while your opponent has one Judgment Dragon on their field, the situation is not exactly in your favor. Therefore it is very important that you make optimal use of the resource you have available. Consider the following scenario:

You summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius and use it to attack your opponent's face-down monster which is revealed to be Skelengel. Your opponent draws 1 card due to its effect. While you might have gained field presence over your opponent, the Skelengel you destroyed has already replaced itself with another card. Cards such as these—known as "floaters"—allow players to make moves without risking a loss of advantage. Look at it this way:

You destroyed a Skelengel by battle. (-1 for your opponent)
Your opponent draws a card due to Skelengel's effect (+1 for your opponent)
Net card advantage is: -1 + 1 = 0

The Gadgets are a prime example of floater concept as each of the three Gadgets (Red, Green, and Yellow) adds another to your hand, so that even if your opponent destroys it, your card has already paid for itself. It is for this reason that cards like Deep Sea Diva, Elemental Hero Stratos, and Gravekeeper's Spy are widely used.

Note that Monsters need not have effects to be considered floaters. If a Normal Monster were to destroy at least one of your opponent's monsters by battle then it would become a floater.

But as I said earlier, having more cards than your opponent isn't everything. What's important is that you utilize what resources you have optimally. Let's compare two very popular monster removal cards:

Smashing Ground:

Destroy the 1 face-up monster your opponent controls that has the highest DEF. (If it's a tie, you get to choose.)

Lightning Vortex:

Discard 1 card. Destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls.

While both cards destroy your opponent's face-up monsters, the former is costless and affects only a single whereas the latter requires a discard and can destroy as many as five. Because of this using the Lightning Vortex to destroy only one of your opponent's monsters would not be an optimal play as the former could same without the added requirement (the discard).

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 1 face-up Monster:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+1 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 1 = -1

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 2 face-up Monsters:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+2 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 2 = 0

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 3 face-up Monsters:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+3 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 3 = +1

That's not to say that -1 yourself isn't always an acceptable move but it is not always likely to be advantageous in the long run to the players who does.

Card advantage may sound pretty straightforward, but it's up to the player to know when to respond appropriately. After all it's better to -1 yourself to by using Lightning Vortex to destroy your opponent's Dark Armed Dragon when he/she has two more Dark Monsters in his/her Graveyard than simply want for him/her to summon more monsters. With enough experience any player can make the right call.

Remember players, the game ends with you.