Seven Days: August 27th
It’s Monday, August 27th 2007, and this year’s first wave of Collector’s Tins have started appearing in stores!
Sapphire Pegasus, Grand Neos, and Destiny Hero—Plasma Tins Debut
It seems like just a few weeks have passed since everyone was stalking their local card stores for Cyber Dragon tins. This time around, the year’s highlights are a bit more varied, and while Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and Elemental Hero Grand Neos are going to be big hits with different types of duelists, I think everybody’s going to want Destiny Hero - Plasma. It’s the first all-new Collector’s Tin card since 2005, and it’s got some tournament players chomping at the bit.
Destiny Hero - Plasma is a Level 8 Dark Warrior with 1900 ATK and 600 DEF. It can only be special summoned by tributing three monsters, but since you can use tokens and tribute-friendly Destiny Hero support, that shouldn’t be too hard. Once per turn it can suck up an opposing monster—kind of like Relinquished—and then it gains ATK equal to half of the attached monster’s. Inhale a Monarch and Plasma goes to 3100 ATK.
Its second ability negates the effects of face-up monsters your opponent controls, shutting down Monarchs, wrecking Jinzo, and destroying most high-level strategies. Plasma looks pretty awesome too, sporting a lobster claw for a hand plus the world’s spikiest shoulder pads. Good stuff.
Plasma, Sapphire Pegasus, and Grand Neos tins are shipping to various parts of the country as you read this, so keep in touch with your local sources for cards. There’s no real way to tell when your area will get its tins, but a couple phone calls to local stores can keep you up on things.
Time 2 Duel Tour This Weekend in New Jersey
As the It’s Kids’ Time Mall Tour makes its way to Dallas next weekend for a September 8th engagement at the Stonebriar Mall, the Time 2 Duel cross-country tour is headed to the Garden State. Frank Debrito and Co. will be at Six Flags Great Adventure Saturday, Sunday, and Monday doing demos and answering questions for younger and newer duelists. You can find scheduling info for this event (as well as next week’s stop at Pennsylvania’s York Fair) over on the official Time 2 Duel page.
Both of these tour programs are aimed at beginner level players and Yu-Gi-Oh! fans who haven’t learned to duel yet, so if you have younger siblings, it’s a great chance to get them involved. More players means bigger events, and any good TCG needs a healthy influx of new players to keep local level events exciting. If you don’t know a duelist-in-training who might benefit from attending the tour, consider volunteering to help out. You can apply to do so by contacting UDE’s Demo Team Manager, Julia Hedberg, at demo@upperdeck.com. Product gifts for volunteers are certainly worthwhile (I did it a couple weeks ago and can’t recommend it highly enough), and it’s a nice chance to really make a difference in your local scene.
This Week on Metagame.com
After our surprising and totally unscheduled Zombie and Gemini weeks, we have a nice variety of material for you, starting today with The Binder. Mike Rosenberg looks at Nobleman of Crossout, a card that seems to be under the radar for many duelists. Now that it’s back at two per deck, it may be the perfect thing to counter the expected metagame trends in most UDE tournaments over the coming weeks. Mike shares his insight on the topic today.
Then, Jerome McHale takes a surprising direction I haven’t seen anyone else considering: building a deck around the long-forgotten monster Levia-Dragon - Daedalus. With Warrior of Atlantis to search out A Legendary Ocean, and some interesting tricks to manipulate the pace of play, this deck will certainly be making waves.
On Wednesday, I’ll take a run at fixing up a deck I’ve been waiting weeks for: Crystal Beasts with Rainbow Dragon. I was a big fan of Crystal Beasts in the Summer format, but the new card pool has brought the deck a big new trump card, and I’ve been eagerly waiting to see what readers would put together. Now that I have a few decks in my inbox, I’m ready to tackle Jesse Anderson’s ultimate monster.
Curtis Schultz swings open the doors to his Duel Academy on Thursday, and it’s time to attend Gemini Monsters 101. Curtis’s focus this week is the transformation that Gemini monsters undergo, transitioning from normal monsters to effect monsters. What does that mean for each card individually, and what advantages does it offer the clever duelist? Curtis will answer those questions by breaking down the transformation effect and showing you which support cards you can use with Geminis.
Friday, Bryan Camareno helps you tackle one of the toughest challenges the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has to offer: change. With the new format just a few days off, everybody’s trying to figure out what to play, and it’s just one example of the types of change this game presents us with. Not sure what to play, or how to go about deciding? Bryan has a five-step process to help you prepare for the new Advanced list.
Kenny So utterly astounded duelists less than two weeks ago at Gen Con Indianapolis, when the Comic Odyssey coach exploded from the shadows of long-time favorites like Theeresak Poonsombat and Erik Wu to take a shocking Shonen Jump win. Armed with an innovative burn deck that the field simply wasn’t prepared for, So mowed down the opposition at a grinding, unstoppable pace. This Saturday, Matt Peddle will show you how So did it, breaking apart his deck to demonstrate why it was effective.
Finally, Ryan Murphy joins us Sunday to revamp one of the oldest combo archetypes of all time for the modern Traditional format: Exodia OTK! Gearfried the Iron Knight harnesses the power of Butterfly Dagger - Elma once again to oust Chaos Emperor Dragon and Magical Scientist, winning game after game before the duel barely even starts. If you’re Traditional player and remember how good this deck used to be, you might find yourself surprised at how good it still is.
That’s it for this week. Head back in another seven days as we plunge into a new format and get ready for Shonen Jump Championship College Park! Until then, I’m,
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com