It’s Tuesday, the 31st of October, and that means many of us will be dressing up to shake down neighbors for candy later tonight! It also means that we’re perched at the beginning of a long string of high-profile Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG events, starting just days ago at Shonen Jump Championship Seattle!
Kyle Lopez Wins Shonen Jump Championship Seattle
The first West Coast Shonen Jump Championship of the format took place this past weekend, and after the dust settled, it was Kyle Lopez who reigned victorious over duelists like Emon Ghaneian, Jake McNeely, and Chris Moosman.
Lopez’s victory over a highly varied Top 8 field is testament both to his own skill and the power of Thestalos/Zaborg Monarch strategies. The deck Lopez piloted to glory was a variation on the one Ryan Spicer rode to the final match at SJC Austin, and solidifies Monarchs as the deck to beat for weeks to come. Unlike previous eras, though, there is no sure-fire “best deck,” and the weekend’s Top 8 proved that. Aggro Beatdown and Warrior Toolbox both made showings, but surprising Day 2 entries included Chris Moosman’s Prickle Fairy deck and Joseph Zeng’s Machine build. The latter featured OTK support, Beatdown capabilities, and a teched Overload Fusion to bring Chimeratech Overdragon into the Top 8 spotlight for the first time ever!
Missed the action over the weekend? Be sure to check out all our coverage to stay in the loop. Our congratulations go out to everyone who participated in Shonen Jump Championship Seattle, as well as a special congrats to your newest Shonen Jump Champion, Kyle Lopez!
Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim 18 Days Away
Now that we’ve seen Eastern, Western and Southern metagames for the current Advanced format, all bets are off as SJC action heads for Anaheim, California! The stage is set and Gen Con So Cal will play host to hundreds of duelists competing for electronics, cards, and the ultimate glory of title gold.
Big teams already confirmed to be in attendance include the local Comic Odyssey, as well as Team Overdose. Both groups will be sending previous champions and Top 8ers to compete. In addition, Chris Moosman will be returning with high hopes to reprise his innovative Top 8 showing this past weekend! With a loose national metagame now identified, duelists will have their first big chance to tech the predicted field, and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of original ideas that aim to beat the status quo. Monarch decks captured the last two Shonen Jump titles, but duelists will be teching hard against Zaborg and Thestalos at Anaheim. This format has been full of surprises thus far, and Monarch players will have their work cut out for them two and a half weeks from today.
Gen Con So Cal is the birthplace of the Shonen Jump Championship circuit, and each year things get taken up another notch. Metagame will be live onsite to bring you extended coverage of feature matches, decks, tech, interviews, scrubbings, photo galleries, Kuribohs and much more, so if you’re not competing, be sure to follow along with all the action! If you are thinking of throwing down, head on over to the official event listing at Upper Deck Entertainment’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG website for all the important details.
Cyberdark Impact Sneak Previews This Weekend!
Of course, before you start making plans for Anaheim you’ll want to hit up the Cyberdark Impact Sneak Preview events this Saturday and Sunday! If you’ve been following our card-by-card preview coverage this past week, you’ll already know some of the powerful cards to be found in this set. We’ll keep giving you in-depth analyses of the best Cyberdark Impact has to offer right up until Friday night, and then it’s off to your local Previews to take some names and crack some boosters.
Participate in a Sneak Preview event and you’ll get to bust open packs of the new set weeks before it hits store shelves! In addition, you’ll get an exclusive ultra rare foil version of Justi-Break, a Yu-Gi-Oh! manga preview, and a chance to win a Sneak Preview t-shirt just for registering. Most Sneak Previews support both competitive and casual formats, so there’ll be something for your tastes whether you’re a player or a collector. These events are a great chance for new players to participate in sanctioned events, and an excellent opportunity for veterans to meet up with other hardcore fans to duel or trade.
You can find all the necessary info, including a venue locator, right here at the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG website. Head out, get some free stuff, and have a good time!
Cyberdark Impact Previews Continue This Week on Metagame
We can’t get enough new cards around here, so preview weeks are always a blast! We’ve got our last few Cyberdark Impact preview articles lined up this week, plus additional material from myself and Curtis Schultz.
On Sunday, I followed up on my first preview from last week, when I took a look at the set’s marquee ultra rare, Cyberdark Dragon. A vicious combination of all three smaller Cyberdark monsters, its ATK knows no bounds and it makes an exceptional finisher. Check out all the details right here.
Yesterday, Matt Peddle dissected Dark Lucius LV4, LV6, and LV8 to show you what makes them so different from previous “Level” monsters. Lucius brings an array of tantalizing effects to the table, teching several popular cards that many would consider staples. He also merges really well into explored Fiend strategies too. This one’s all about the details, and Matt’s got all of them right here!
On Wednesday Mike Rosenberg will examine you one of the most combo-licious cards from the set. Degenerate Circuit is a deadly spell card that turns some of the game’s most underrated monsters into show-stopping win conditions, and our resident bounce and spin expert will demonstrate how you can get the most impact out of its outrageously unique effect. Guardian Sphinx for the win? I think so!
Following hot on Mike’s heels comes Jae Kim, packing yet another combo-oriented spell. He’ll look at Flash of the Forbidden Spell, and reveal a number of combos and situations that make its Raigeki-esque effect a real heartbreaker for your opponent. Play this card right and you can wipe hordes of monsters off the field regardless of battle position, and you even get to do it without paying any sort of life point or discard cost. Jae will reveal all, this Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Curtis Schultz will swing open the doors to his Duelist Academy in order to give you a quick lesson in leveling. With Dark Lucius set to make an impact on local level scenes and Sneak Previews alike, it’s important to understand what your LV monsters can and can’t do. Curtis will demonstrate all the tricky ins and outs that make them a challenging (but rewarding) set of strategies.
Our last night of preview articles comes this Friday, when Jerome McHale takes a peek at one of the most unique cards ever printed. Cyber Shadow Gardna is one of a rare breed of cards fondly nicknamed “trap monsters.” While you’ve probably seen Embodiment of Apophis before, Cyber Shadow Gardna is incredibly different because it changes from a trap into a monster and back any time it’s used. Jerome will show you how to get the most out of its tricky ability.
Finally, this weekend I’ll launch a new bi-weekly column replacing my previous State of the Game articles. Trends ‘N’ Tactics will show you the ground-floor play observations I don’t have time or opportunity to make in live tournament coverage. There are a lot of formative trends going on and many of them don’t immediately make it to the Top 8 tables: understanding them will make you a better duelist in the long run. I’ll also highlight important tactical pointers to improve your short game! Trends ‘N’ Tactics will keep you on the cutting edge, while also showing you important plays to make, and a few to avoid.
That’s it for this week! Get ready for a weekend of Sneak Preview fun: if you’re in the New York area and plan on getting your Preview goodness at Neutral Ground, Julia Hedberg and I will see you there.
As always, thanks for reading Metagame.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com