It’s Tuesday, September 4th, and less than two weeks remain until the first Shonen Jump Championship of the new format!
Shonen Jump Washington on September 15th
Dream Wizards Games presents Shonen Jump Washington eleven days from today, as SJC action returns to the University of Maryland! The last time we brought you live coverage from College Park, we saw Chris Pittao battle Shane Scurry to an absolute standstill: the first Shonen Jump Championship ever to be decided by deck-out. And just like last year, this Shonen Jump Washington marks the beginning of a new Advanced format.
Tactical Evolution is now legal for play in Shonen Jump tournaments, and the new Advanced list has changed duelists’ impressions of the game. Most are predicting big things for Apprentice engine Monarchs and Warriors, but a vast number of alternative strategies are in a speculative grey zone. Diamond Dude Turbo, Demise OTK, Green Baboon, Zombies, Crystal Beasts, and Machine Beatdown have all been discussed as potential contenders, and we’re sure to be in for some serious surprises.
You can find the official Shonen Jump Washington event listing right here, but for all the info you need on the venue location, side events, directions, and more, head over to the PTO’s official website for details. Be sure to check out the side event playoff rules: they’re a bit different than the usual Top 4 arrangement.
If you can’t make it to College Park to be part of the action, then join us here on Metagame.com for the next best thing! We’ll be coming to you live from the tournament floor all weekend long with the feature matches, deck profiles, and insight that will help you get a jump on competition in your area. It’s a new format, and anything can happen. Don’t miss it.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Tours Hit Pennsylvania and Dallas This Weekend
After last weekend’s successful event at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, the Time 2 Duel cross-country Yu-Gi-Oh! tour stops at the York Fair this week in Pennsylvania. Get ready for four days of fun for new and aspiring duelists, because the Time 2 Duel crew will be set up at the Fair for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you have a younger duelist in the family, or some friends who are curious about how the game works, this is an awesome chance to give them an introduction to dueling.
Then, the Kids’ Time Mall Tour rolls into the Stonebriar Mall on Saturday, bringing the Tour to Dallas for the second time this year. Head on over for learn-to-play demos, memory games, and the opportunity to do some trivia and earn a booster pack. For more experienced duelists, you can get the chance to throw down against the tour’s volunteer staff for an extra booster or two.
As I like to say every week, both of these events are great resources (and a lot of fun) for new players and younger GX fans. If you’re not in that demographic, be sure to check out the tour schedules anyways—volunteering to help at one of the tours is a great chance to give back to your local Yu-Gi-Oh! community and help it grow. If you think you have what it takes to help out some newbies and earn some generous product gifts in the process, just drop UDE’s Julia Hedberg an e-mail over at demo@upperdeck.com to apply. Make sure to include your personal information, as well as the event you’d like to help out at.
This Week on Metagame.com
We started this week with a bit of a history lesson, as Mike Rosenberg looked at the storied past of Good Goblin Housekeeping. Now playable in threes, Housekeeping might just be a totally different card from what we once knew, and Mike’s going to use a little math and some TCG theory to explain why. What makes this much-maligned trap card so good in the new format? Click on over and find out.
Today, Jerome McHale beats me to writing about one of my all-time favorite archetypes. Spellcasters have a new lease on competitive life for a variety of reasons in this format, and Jerome’s going to give you a deck list that could have a place in any player’s testing gauntlet. Plenty of monster removal mixes with some creative control tricks for a truly memorable build.
Tomorrow I’ll take a crack at tweaking an Earth and Wind deck. Desert Twister has given duelists a strong reason to combine these two opposing attributes, and this week’s contributor did a great job building a deck around the spell-smashing snake. With a little bit of help, it’ll be ready to head into serious competition.
Most duelists know about the Gemini monsters by now, but the actual mechanics of their transformation can be complicated. This Thursday, Curtis will investigate how the normal summon of a Gemini monster interacts with a range of popular effects, helping you figure out how best to play the Geminis.
On Friday we have a double-header for you, starting off with another installment of The Practical Duelist from Bryan Camareno. This time around, Bryan’s going to look at the important role mistakes can play in your growth as a serious competitor. He’ll discuss questions you can ask yourself, factors that can get in your way, and a personal anecdote to help illustrate things.
Then guest writer Jeff Yuschak stops by to give some tips on one of his personal fortes: table judging. While we’ve featured comprehensive material on table judging fundamentals in the past, this time Jeff approaches the topic from a new perspective, highlighting specific problems and things to watch out for. If you’re new to table judging and wondering what kind of challenges you might encounter, this article’s a definite must-read.
Billy Brake made huge waves at last month’s Shonen Jump Indy, when he bashed his way to the Top 16 with Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest. Brake was one of several experienced duelists running Beasts at Indy, so what made him succeed where so many others faltered? Matt Peddle’s going to answer that question this Saturday, dissecting Brake’s deck to show you what made it so good.
On Sunday, Matt Murphy will wrap up our week with his take on the popular Zombie theme. One part swarm and one part burn, Matt’s deck puts a whole new twist on the Zombie concept by using Ectoplasmer to clear the field and deal damage. Lich Lord, King of the Underworld is the lynchpin for this unique build.
And that’s it for this week! Head on back in another seven days, when we’ll count down the remaining hours to Shonen Jump Washington.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com