Post San Diego: Gishki Deck-Out

Gishki decks are famous for two things: efficient, powerful ritual summons, and a clever strategy that strips your deck of every single card in it. Not familiar with that second one? Let's talk about the Gishki Deck-Out Deck piloted by Allen C. Pennington into the Top 32 of YCS San Diego!

Gishki Deck-Out

The Gishki Deck-Out Deck uses cards like Hand Destruction, One Day of Peace, and Card Destruction to cycle through their entire deck in one turn. From there, they summon Evigishki Mind Augus, and use its effect to recycle five cards from their graveyard - probably Hand Destruction, One Day of Peace, and most importantly, a second copy of Evigishki Mind Augus - and proceed to draw their entire deck again, and then summon another Mind Augus, tributing the previous one, and repeating the whole cycle. You may ask, "what's the point in that?!" The point is that many of these cards have both players draw cards. The Gishki player will be recycling cards, but their opponent will be helpless! Or, that's what they want you to think.



Don't Fall for the Bait!




The Gishki Deck-Out relies on Evigishki Mind Augus. If you can banish one of the copies with Bottomless Trap Hole, or Dimension Slice, then you've effectively won. The Gishki players knows that, so they'll try to bait out your Bottomless Trap Holes by summoning Evigishki Soul Ogre. Don't fall for their trick! The real threat is Mind Augus. Similarly, if you can get both copies of Mind Augus into the graveyard, through something like Mind Crush, or a well-timed Raigeki Break, you can slow them down, and, if you're lucky, stop them in your tracks.

Placing A Veil Over the Situation



While not every player is running cards like Mind Crush, Raigeki Break, or Dimension Slice, it's a sure-fire guarantee that you're running at least one copy of the popular Effect Veiler. If you run two or more, you should be golden! It's best to hold onto your copy of Effect Veiler until you draw into another one, thanks to your opponent's cards. You'll want to go after the Mind Augus, again. Negate the first one, and then the second. Hopefully, you'll have a chance to strike back before your time runs out!

Speaking Of Time...
The Gishki Deck-Out, when it works, can take a long time to perform it's combo. A really, really long time. So long, in fact, that the entire allotment of time for the round can run out during their first turn. If that happens, and they win, they'll win the entire match, due to official procedures for when the first duel of a match runs out of time. Because of that, it's often better to simply surrender when they start their combo and you don't have any ways out.

A Rip in the Space-Time Continuum



Despite having vastly different goals and playstyles, the Mermail and Gishki deck have two things in common: one, they're both composed of water monsters. That's pretty much irrelevant, but the second point isn't: they both fall to Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure. Mind Augus can't recycle from the Removed from Play zone, and they can't even summon another to recycle the first. Other key cards in the deck, like Hand Destruction, also fall victim to the different dimension.

It's Good to be the King

 



Thunder King Rai-Oh can slow down the Gishki deck if you manage to get it out. It won't stop cards that only perform additional draws, but it'll stop searching cards, and the Gishki are full of those. If you can stop their search effects, the chance of them being able to use their combo on the first turn are reduced. Then it's up to you to strike hard and fast on your turn!

Shocking, Isn't It?
Another card that can lock the Gishki deck out of the game is Number 16: Shock Master. If you declare spell cards, their entire deck falls apart, and there's virtually nothing they can do. This makes decks  that can throw down a bunch of level 4s a good match for the Gishki deck, provided they don't go off on the very first turn of the game.

The Gishki Deck-Out deck can be difficult to deal with once it starts its combos rolling. But by adjusting your play style and using your cards properly, you stand a good chance of beating it. The more people who know about this deck, the weaker it becomes - strategies like this are like glass cannons, relying on surprise, lack of knowledge about their strategy, and weak side-decks to win. This articles addressed each of those points, so now it's up to you!

Workloads

Here's the truth: I try to do too much here. I try to provide quality content, on a regular basis, and my schedule is just too full to fulfill my obligations. So here's what we're gonna do: I'll be posting Yu-Gi-Oh! related content on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Each article will end with what the next article will be about. This new schedule will allow me to maintain consistent quality, while also maintaining consistent posting. Mr. Tewart, if you ever happen to read this... I can maintain a work schedule! Providing daily content just isn't a top priority right now. Now, if I were working for the strategy site...

Would You Look at That! Inari Fire and Summoner Monk

I'll make it clear now - I love the adorable Charmer monsters, and all the cards related to them. Inari Fire is a case of retroactive additions to this menagerie, as the fox monster originally portrayed in the art of Blazing Hita and Familiar Possessed - Hita was just an enraged, juiced up Fox Fire. I could be wrong, but that's the assumption I've always held. If not, that's great, because that means we have at least five other monsters, who'll hopefully all have the same competitive potential as Inari Fire. Today, I'd like to look at a specific place where I think Inari Fire bumps up the amount of awesome sauce.
No, not Flamvells. While that's where the majority of the talk is, and while playing Inari Fire along with Flamvell Magician and Scrap Dragon is cool, I have a different deck in mind. That deck is Volcanic Alice! Alice decks typically function around a Summoner Monk engine, based on grinding out advantage through monsters like Sacred Crane or Volcanic Rocket. The Alice deck actually originated with a Volcanic engine along with Summoner Monk, and it's that retro build that I think Inari Fire works best in. The basic play sequence would go like this:
Use Summoner Monk's effect to special summon Volcanic Rocket (+1), discarding a spell card (-1) [0].
Volcanic Rocket's effect activates, fetching a Blaze Accelerator (+1) [+1].
Special summon Inari Fire from your hand (0) and proceed to either make a 2-material Rank 4 Xyz (-1) [0] or a 3-material, such as Number 16: Shock Master [-1].
Taking a -1 to go into Shock Master is completely acceptable, as Shock Master often functions as a win condition in and of itself. Even better, you can make monsters like Infernal Flame Vixen with your two pyro-type monsters if the situation calls for it, while leaving Summoner Monk on field to fetch more monsters. I think that a Volcanic Alice deck could be built in a few different ways now, with the added strength and consistency of Inari Fire. It could main-deck Royal Firestorm Guards, Pyrorex the Elemental Lord (just be sure to use graveyard manipulation!), and other fire monster all stars. Heck, that Flamvell Magician could probably make an appearance, because Scrap Dragon with Inari Fire is a really good play. Best of all, it's possible with only a Summoner Monk, Inari Fire and a spell card, in hand. I don't have a decklist, but that's only because Inari Fire and Summoner Monk are a really versatile pair. Anything running enough spells can throw in Summoner Monk and Inari Fire, whether it's a Alice deck, or a Fire deck. There's a multitude of ways you could build a deck just around those two, so go forth and build!

Card of the Day (4/1/13)

Today's Card of the Day is Heroic Gift. This card is widely reviled, and today I'd like to demonstrate why that's a poor approach to take. When I looked at this card, I had a difficult time seeing the point of it as well. But with a little more effort, and truly considering each part of its effect, I was able to see some points that make it a distant side deck choice for a few rare decks.

I'm going to be doing something a bit odd - rather than discuss its benefits and downsides, I'm going to act if I was arguing for this card's use, then explain why it's not quite ready for competition.
First and foremost, this isn't a card you would main-deck. You would use this card as a side-deck against a very select few decks: mainly, anything using Hope for Escape.
Hope for Escape relies on having low life points in order to increase the amount of cards you can draw. Heroic Gift is a perfect counter to this, increasing your own draw while making any subsequent Hope for Escape plays useless. Moreover, you can chain this card to Hope for Escape, rendering their potential draws nonexistent.
Sadly, when playing against the type of decks that typically use Hope for Escape - Final Countdown, Self-Destruct Button and Exodia being the main ones - raising their life points back to 8000 from 2000 is extremely counterproductive. Your effort should be to kill them as quickly as possible, rather than exert more card advantage. If you're in the 2000 range, you're one strong attack away from victory. The only deck I could ever, EVER condone this card in would be in a deck that can easily OTK, or as a counter-side for those same three decks using Hope for Escape. Why use Heroic Gift as a counter-side? Your opponent will typically try to reduce their life points in any way possible once they know you're using Hope for Escape, and life points are irrelevant when you're using a special win-condition. This would be especially relevant for Self-Destruct Button decks, which need your opponent to have high life points.
So, odds are you'll never see Heroic Gift in play. Ever.
But if you do? It'll probably do some cool stuff and mess with your opponent.

What's Hoppening?!

Hey, readers!

Today we'll look at a gimmick deck I built in honor of Easter. Rather than use a bunch of cards that are unrelated but thematically interesting, I decided to focus on Rabbits and Bunnies, and build a deck that borrows some of the top strategies that are out there right now. This deck is also affordable, with only a few difficult to find cards. But we all know the real reason we're here is to see a Rabbit deck that doesn't use Rescue Rabbit!
...Well, a deck that doesn't use Rescue Rabbit as its only Easter-friendly card. Let's check out the decklist!

The Easter Bunny's Henchmen
(AKA, There's the Easter Bunny! And Another One... and Another One...)

2x Rescue Rabbit
2x Tour Guide from the Underworld
3x Dark Rabbit
3x Wind-Up Rabbit
3x Creepy Coney
3x Gene-Warped Warwolf
1x Night Assailant

3x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Mystical Typhoon
2x Pot of Duality
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Book of Moon

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Mirror Force
2x Torrential Tribute
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Starlight Road

First off, there's several popular strategies in this deck. First and foremost, we have the Rescue Rabbit/Tour Guide coupling. This strategy is the very core of Dino-Rabbit, and the main reason for its success. While we won't be making Evolzars here, the ability to trade one card for two is powerful in any strategy. I actually wanted to run Bunilla here (because I'm irrevocably in love with Slacker Magician), but realized I had nine normal monsters after adding in Gene-Warped Warwolf. There's probably another (equally as gimmicky*) variant of this deck that uses normal monster support and isn't afraid of running nine normal monsters. But here, we want to streamline as best we can.
From the Fire Fist playbook, we have Fire Formation - Tenki searching out Gene-Warped Warwolf. We've also taken a Wind-Up trick and repurposed Tenki for also searching out Wind-Up Rabbit. But that's not really stealing, since Wind-Up Rabbit was on our side all along.
Right?
Creepy Coney helps facilitate Rank 3 summons, and lets you deal healthy bits of random burn damage here or there. There's nothing like flipping a Creepy Coney face-up and burning your opponent to death because of that Bunilla they left alive last turn. Aside from that, the rest of the cards in the deck are commonly used cards you could find anywhere.
The best part about this deck? You can change all of the ratios around. You can swap out the Dark Rabbits and use Bunillas to gain access to Slacker Magician, throw in some Inaba White Rabbits for more Rank 3's, or even try using Mecha Bunnies and Blade Rabbits for Rank 2's! It's a gimmick deck no doubt, but it's fun to play with. It's almost like Dino-Rabbit, but without the incredible power of the Evolzars. And with Dark Rabbit instead of Sabersaurus. And Creepy Coney instead of Snowman Eater.
Yeah, actually, just run Dino-Rabbit if you're looking for victory after a Rescue Rabbit play. But if you're looking for a gimmick deck, there's few more gimmicky than this one!

*Rabbit Exodia Draw was a deck I considered attempting. I considered Gift of the White Elephant's, along with Common Charity's as the main draw engine, maybe even with Rabidragon and Trade-In. The main defense would be Bunilla + any level 1 monster to Xyz summon Slacker Magician, along with your classic Exodia stalling cards. In the end, I went with this strategy because I felt that building a deck around an Egyptian God the day after Easter was a bit sacrilegious.
Just kidding, I just like this build a bit more right now. Look for Rabbit Exodia in the future!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Check out my main blog (theprincebycanon) for my post about Easter! In celebration, I'm going to post a bunny/egg themed deck tomorrow.

Power and Utility

This article is a necessity because of how often I use these two terms when reviewing a card. Of course, you may already know these two traits by other names, but this article's about the idea behind them, not the semantics. Hopefully, this will make it clear what my (personal) interpretation of these two things is, and thus enable you to have a more enjoyable read when reading my articles.

•  First off, we have "power." A powerful card is capable of creating huge swings in momentum and card presence. For instance, Ojama Delta Hurricane!! is a very powerful card. Delinquent Duo is another example of a powerful card. Book of Moon is NOT a powerful card, as it does little on its own to shift card presence. Power works best when combined with Utility, such as Torrential Tribute.
• The other trait is Utility. Utility is intrinsically tied with Consistency, which also ties into Power. All these traits are co-dependent of each other. Utility is based off of when a card can be activated, the various uses the card or its effect can be used for, and how easy it is to activate. Raigeki Break is a good example of Utility, as it can be activated at any time and destroy any card. Since it is a trap, the first criteria takes a blow in that you can't activate it immediately, though it scores better than a spell version would, since it can be activated on your opponent's turn and yours after that initial set. However, the discard cost impacts the third criteria: how easy it is to activate. Regardless, it is only a single card you need to discard, so it still has high Utility. Looking back to our earlier example of Power, Ojama Delta Hurricane!!, you can see that it requires you to have 3 different monsters face up, all of whom have only 1000 defense, no attack, and have no effects. Thus, Ojama Delta Hurricane!! has low Utility. Book of Moon, while having low power, has incredibly high Utility. It can flip down any monster - yours, or your opponents - is a quick-play spell, and has no costs or activation requirements.

This isn't terribly complex, but I wanted to make it abundantly clear for all my readers. These concepts are hopefully not new to you, as they're something all duelists should keep in mind.

Excuses, Words, and Reluctancies.

The number one reason I failed to continue posting here is that I was unable to keep up with the stringent schedule I'd given myself, while still adhering to a level of quality I expect in my work. For that, I apologize. The second reason is that for quite a time, I had ceased blogging entirely. This blog is secondary to my main blog, The Prince by Canon. However, I want to keep posting here. As I will be leaving to serve a mission around January next year, I'm not sure what will happen to Yu-Gi-Oh! in my life. It's certainly a fun hobby. I'd like to keep writing about it, and increasing my knowledge about the game and its cards. Starting this week, I'll work on creating a different, easier to follow schedule. A tentative one is as follows:

Monday: Card of the Week!
Tuesday: Yu-Gi-Oh! News Reactions
Wednesday: Would You Look at That! (Uncommon combos, card interactions, and deck types)
Thursday: Just for Fun! Character/Theme Decks OR Current Trends To Examine
Friday: Trying My Hardest (Home Brewed Decks Geared Towards Local Level Competition, and Higher!)
Saturday: Deck Profile(s)
Sunday: My Day Off~

I'd like to start on this next week, and give myself some time.