The 2011 'Lowdown' Thread

[The Yugioh PRO]

I felt that my previous article need a update, so here we go :

yo, time that I updated the old posts because a lot of things have changed.

First off, the march 2011 format hasn't begun but we know the list (as I type).

Here is the latest banlist:

http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=927596

This format (so far) looks like it's based around x-sabers,samurai,zero,infernity and monarch.



These decks look very promising at the moment

Scraps: The Scrap monsters are an Archetype that made their debut in Structure Deck 18: Machiners Command (Duelist Revolution in the TCG). All of these monsters are EARTH attribute. In spite of their appearance and name, almost none of them are Machine-Types except for Scrap Hunter, Scrap Mind Reader, Scrap Breaker and [YGOCARD]Scrap Recycler[/YGOCARD]. So far, cards for this archetype are found in the Duelist Revolution, Starstrike Blast, Storm of Ragnarok, and Extreme Victory booster packs. (Upon EV's release)

Scrap monsters focus on destroying themselves by the effects of Scrap cards, which allows you to make use of many effects. An interesting side note is that some of the Scrap cards can be placed on the opponent's side of the field. Here is a list of all Scrap cards and their relevant explanations. Scrap Tuner Monsters, except Scrap Mind Reader can add another Scrap Monster from your Graveyard to your hand when it's destroyed by a card effect of a Scrap card, even its own effect.

Gladiator Beasts - The September 2010 ban list which hurt a few decks, was supposed to help glads removing obstacles that stood in their way to reign victorious in the previous format.
Gladiator Beast decks are, as they have always been though. We are about in the third year of their 'domination', so even those people returning to the game after a long break should know what Gladiator Beasts are and how they work. Basically, they special summon each other from their deck by 'tagging out' when they attack anything and they have a wide variety of effects when other Gladiator Beasts 'tag in'. The Gladiator Beast Deck is very versatile and has a lot of 'outs' for cards that are side-decked to try and stop them. Here's the 'official thread':
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=927934

Infernities -
An archetype of DARK monsters that revolve around limitless Graveyard manipulation. The condition for the deck is that it has to play without a hand, but the deck has massive defenses to compensate. Infernity can become a crippling control deck and normally wins long duels. Additionally, the deck has a number of potent OTKs at its disposal.

Fortunately, the deck is very hard to use. Therefor, only skilled users will be able to use this deck. Consequentially, the deck is very rare and is easily beaten if the user is inexperienced with the deck.

The March '11 ban list was very kind to the deck, eliminating most of the major threats to the deck.

The most efficient method of defeating Infernity is to gain the upper hand in the first few turns. Alternatively, removal cards like [YGOCARD]D.D. Crow[/YGOCARD] can work, but the deck has defenses against such cards. The Infernity Discussion Thread can be found here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=930350

XX-Sabers - Ever since Roy St. Clair top 4'd SJC Nashville Tenesseee with an X-Saber build lately, people have been giving this deck serious consideration. Problem is, that the card needed to make the deck work consistently, viz [YGOCARD]XX-Saber Emmersblade[/YGOCARD] is very expensive at the moment, going for about USD $80- $100 each. They abuse the searching of [YGOCARD]XX-Saber Darksoul[/YGOCARD] and the revival of [YGOCARD]XX-Saber Faultroll[/YGOCARD] to make their combos work.
X-sabers were the best deck in yugioh before. Here's a useful thread on them:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=927676

Machina gadgets- With the release of the latest Structure Deck called 'Machina Mayhem', the unlimiting of [YGOCARD]Cyber Dragon[/YGOCARD], Machina Decks just got a huge boost and have been bumped up to Tier 1 The Structure Deck is the best one that we have received in a long while. Machinas are most often run with Gadgets, or simply on their own as a 'stand alone' deck. they are weak to a card called [YGOCARD]Chimeratech Fortress Dragon[/YGOCARD] and [YGOCARD]System Down[/YGOCARD].
Machine/Machina information can be found here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=921192

Monarchs- With [YGOCARD]Cyber Dragon[/YGOCARD] and [YGOCARD]Treeborn Frog[/YGOCARD] now on three and with newly released cards like [YGOCARD]Battle Fader[/YGOCARD] and Super Nimble Mega Hamster, Monarchs have been boosted heavily and are again a rather powerful force to contend with. [YGOCARD]Royal Oppression[/YGOCARD] based Monarch decks are still very popular and probably the best way to go this format.
Seeing as how nearly everybody knows what Monarchs are and what they do, I will not include a link. A more recent variant that has seen considerable success is the "Formula Monarch" variant that abuse the new card Formula Synchron to increase the speed of the deck (no pun intended).

Gravekeeper's recently became big with the advent of Gravekeeper's Recruiter. They focus on shutting down the grave with [YGOCARD]Necrovalley[/YGOCARD], crippling the hand with [YGOCARD]Royal Tribute[/YGOCARD] and gaining tremendous advantage in a short space of time. this allowed them to get 1st 2nd and 3rd in the ycs atlanta.

Quickdraw Plants/Plant Synchro is a deck that abuses both [YGOCARD]Debris Dragon[/YGOCARD] and [YGOCARD]Dandylion[/YGOCARD] to ridiculous extremes. They have the capability to nuke the field using their newly unlimited [YGOCARD]Black Rose Dragon[/YGOCARD]. They also use various other engines including [YGOCARD]Super-Nimble Mega Hamster[/YGOCARD] + [YGOCARD]Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter[/YGOCARD] and the various plays that can be made with [YGOCARD]Lonefire Blossom[/YGOCARD].

Absolute zero:
Absolute Zero works via mandatory trigger ability that destroys all of your opponents monsters when he is removed from the field. This effect only has one way to get around it which is setting him face down (ex [YGOCARD]Book of Moon[/YGOCARD]) and removing it from the field while remaining face down (ex nobleman). Other than that there are of course destruction negation and effect veiler however [YGOCARD]Skill Drain[/YGOCARD] does not work.

Due to his requirements (water monster plus, d/e/evil hero) there are several deck variants that exist. The first deck to feature absolute zero was known as Diva dad which used the D hero engine along with [YGOCARD]Deep Sea Diva[/YGOCARD] to quickly get out AZ. The key cards of that deck were:

5-6 d heroes, 2 of which being malicious
stratos
2-3 diva
optional spinned gillman
3 d draw (still legal then)

Since the March 2009 banlist, I think that's the one that took d draw to one, there have been many attempts to keep the diva DAD deck alive and while most are moderately successful other decks have emerged. One of the most popular variants is a gemini stun deck revolving around Neos Alius and [YGOCARD]Gemini Lancer[/YGOCARD].

In Japan however the most popular hero deck is actually based around the debris/ plant engine and utilizes all of the Attribute Hero fusions (except Dark for now) and powerful dragon synchros to put as much pressure on their opponent possible. While the deck has yet to gain much popularity in America it does have a lot of different strategies and the ability to abuse three of the 6 attributes: earth, water, and very soon light. The key cards for that are:

2 debris
dandy
2 lonefire
[YGOCARD]Spore[/YGOCARD]
glow up

stratos
4-5 E heroes

super poly (either mained or sided)

six samurai: The Six Samurai, known as the Six Warmen (六武衆) in Japanese, are a series of Warrior-type monsters that debuted in Strike of Neos, with further support included in Gladiator's Assault. Their names include "The Six Samurai" or "Shien". They rely on having multiple Six Samurai on the field to use their effects, and as such a Deck revolving around them is often based on swarming the field.

The "Six Samurai" monsters consist of the original six, as well as their allies and masters. "Shien" cards are supported by this theme, "Great Shogun Shien" seeming to be the warlord they serve. The overall theme seems to be futuristic, while in some form drawing inspiration from feudal Japan.

The basic Six Samurai monsters (the initial '6') all have the effect "If this card would be destroyed you can destroy another "Six Samurai" monster you control instead" and also "While you control another "Six Samurai" monster with a different name, this card can... " meaning that their effects only activate when another "Six Samurai" monster is on the field.

In the set Storm of Ragnarok, a Legendary Six Samurai sub-archetype was released, providing further support for the original six, as well as their new counterparts

Other decks sitting just below Tier 1.5, but can do extremely well with a good build are:

[YGOCARD]Gigaplant[/YGOCARD] and Plant Variants - With support in The Shining Darkness. Plants have always and will continue to go from strength to strength.

Dragon Decks - (including 'Hopeless Dragon', 'Disaster Dragon' etc). With the Dragon Tuner cards like White Stone of Legend, [YGOCARD]Debris Dragon[/YGOCARD] and [YGOCARD]Magna Drago[/YGOCARD] in addition to the new card from Absolute Powerforce called [YGOCARD]Cards of Consonance[/YGOCARD]:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cards_of_Consonance
in addition to other good old Dragon Support like [YGOCARD]Super Rejuvenation[/YGOCARD] and [YGOCARD]Dragon's Mirror[/YGOCARD], give Dragon-based decks a huge boost and insane speed now.
For more information on Hopeless/Disaster Dragon decks, please go here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=822342

[YGOCARD]Final Countdown[/YGOCARD] - The perennial 'Rogue Deck'.
This deck just got a huge boost with the introduction of Battle Faders into the TCG. Stall has always been a very good 'stand-by' tactic, and although the stalling concept is disliked by many, [YGOCARD]Final Countdown[/YGOCARD] Decks significantly slow down many of the top decks this format like x-sabers, Infernities and Gladiator Beasts. It's also very difficult to side-deck against and can give your opponent many headaches.

Salvo-DAD/Tele-DAD - This theme went into 'hiding' for a while, but it's now back with a vengeance. People are coming up with new and innovative builds all of the time.

Blackwings - A aggro/swarm deck that was Tier 1 but with the icarus
and kalut banlist hit,they dropped down.

So, this is the basic lowdown of the top decks this format and what to look out for. For the Regional Top 8 'Tracking Thread' please go here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=756577
This will give you a good idea what decks are currently topping in your meta.

Money Cards - These include:

[YGOCARD]XX-Saber Emmersblade[/YGOCARD]
[YGOCARD]Archlord Kristya[/YGOCARD]
[YGOCARD]Darklord Zerato[/YGOCARD]
[YGOCARD]Dark Simorgh[/YGOCARD]
[YGOCARD]Dark Armed Dragon[/YGOCARD] (Secret)
[YGOCARD]XX-Saber Darksoul[/YGOCARD]
[YGOCARD]Infernity Barrier[/YGOCARD]
Pot of Duality
Maxx "C"
Legendary six samurai - Kizan

Note: Konami have made it much cheaper to make 'Top-Tier' decks now. Last format, a good deck would set you back over $500.
This format, it's like half of that if that. Latest reprints of hitherto expensive cards makes this possible.
Now is a great time to be getting back into the game.

Latest Releases/Sets:

Storm of ragnarok booster
Marik Structure
Gold series 3
Hidden aresanal 3




Again, welcome back to the game. I hope that this thread helps you out and please don't hesitate to ask for any further information about anything that I have mentioned.

Have fun and good luck.

PM me or post here for more info.




Credits:

Valafar123 - Infernity article
The_Dark_Monarch - Original article base
seekeroftruth17 - Absolute zero section
potofduality1234 (Myself) - Article itself

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This is March's format lowdown anyway

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Needs updated

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