It’s Monday, November 6th, and as Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim draws closer, several new products are starting to hit store shelves!

New Products Arriving at Local Retailers

The second wave of 2006 Collectible Tins have started to ship across North America, and should be appearing in some stores already. Wave 2 features three new Secret Rare promo cards: Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, and Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!

Okay, so maybe you knew that already from reading the back of the Wave 1 Collectible Tin. You might not know what else is in the tin, because the boosters you’ll find in these are different than what you saw in the last three. The new tins have one pack each of Cybernetic Revolution, Elemental Energy, Shadow of Infinity, Enemy of Justice, and Power of the Duelist, bringing them up to speed with recent releases.

Also, many Target locations posted a new item last week in their “coming soon” marquee above the trading card game display rack. It’s called the Elemental Hero Collection, and we’ve got the inside scoop on what the set entails.

To start, there are actually two different versions of the set, aptly titled Elemental Hero Collection 1 and Elemental Hero Collection 2. The first includes four Secret Rare variants of Elemental Hero Avian, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix, Elemental Hero Bubbleman, and Elemental Hero Flame Wingman. The second features Secret Rares of Elemental Hero Sparkman, Elemental Hero Clayman, Elemental Hero Wildheart, and Elemental Hero Thunder Giant. Both sets include four booster packs: one each of The Lost Millennium, Elemental Energy, Power of the Duelist, and Cyberdark Impact. They also come with a really cool poster: one side shows all the Elemental Heroes with lines illustrating how they fuse, and the other side features Jaden with an Elemental Hero checklist.

While Upper Deck Entertainment usually doesn’t issue Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Prices (MSRPs), the Elemental Hero Collections actually come with a price printed on the package. For $19.99 you get four boosters, four exclusive variants, and a poster to boot, which seems like a pretty great deal. It’s a cool item for Elemental Hero fans, a sure-fire gift idea for younger duelists this holiday season, and hey, let’s be honest: we’re all going to want “Elemental Hero Blingheart Version 2.0.” They keep making that card shinier, and I totally keep buying it.

So far it’s unclear whether this item will be Target-exclusive, or if it will also be found in local hobby retailers, but we’ll keep you posted as more information is released. No exact shipping date has been revealed yet, but you can expect to see this item in the coming weeks.

Gen Con So Cal is Just Around the Corner!

Less than a week and a half remains between today and the best four days in gaming! Gen Con So Cal kicks off on the 16th and duelists in attendance will be treated to endless side events, daily Regionals, and a Shonen Jump Championship!

SJC Anaheim will be the first Championship in what we can call an established metagame for the current format. We’ve seen SJCs in the East, West, and South regions of the country, and duelists now have a good idea of what to expect. Monarchs is the deck to beat, but aggro beatdown and Warrior Toolbox are hot on its heels. Plus, everything from Prickle Fairy to Chimeratech Overdragon to Gearfried the Iron Knight has proven to be a viable strategy, lending strong hope to those betting on original concepts.

Will Monarchs take a third consecutive win, or will the format be broken by a teched-out metagame-killer? Are Hydrogeddon’s days numbered after the strong showing from Asura Priest at SJC Seattle? Questions abound, and many of North America’s best duelists will be on-hand to try and determine the answers. Metagame.com will be live onsite to show them to you as they emerge, bringing you extended coverage of feature matches, decks, top duelists, tech, top table updates, scrubbings, and more throughout the day!

Still on the fence about competing? There’s plenty of time for you to make travel arrangements, and you can find the official tournament listing right here on the official Upper Deck Entertainment website. Competitors in the Shonen Jump Championship can pick up a special badge that will permit them entry to the convention and cover their SJC entry fee, all for just $20. For more info on all the Yu-Gi-Oh! events being offered at Gen Con So Cal, check out the PTO’s website.

This Week on Metagame.com

How were your Cyberdark Impact Sneak Previews? Ours were a blast, and now that the set has hit the streets, we’re turning away from Preview content and getting back to our regularly-scheduled programming. First up today is Mike Rosenberg, who delves into The Binder to give us an in-depth investigation into one of the hottest cards from Power of the Duelist. Mausoleum of the Emperor has garnered the attention of admired duelists like Kevin Hor and our own Vinny Tundo, and for good reason: it makes an entire group of monsters far more viable than they’ve ever been before.

On Tuesday, Jerome shows you one of the coolest decks we’ve featured in a while! “Get Out of My Face!” is based around one of the most unique trap cards ever printed—Begone, Knave!—and it plays like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Taking the aggro philosophy to new heights and strange new places, it’s a stunningly effective deck in the current metagame. This one is definitely worth a spot in your testing gauntlet.

Also, after a great response to the first article in the series, Jerome is back with another mind-bending edition of School of Duel. This one picks up where last week left off, starting with the previous article’s homework and then detailing a situation of incomplete information, as only the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG can provide.

On Wednesday, I’ll take on the task of fixing up a really cool Water deck in The Apotheosis. It’s called “Not a Drop to Drink,” and it’s all about creating a Yata-Garasu-type situation with Fenrir. It’s pretty different from previous Water decks we’ve looked at here on Metagame.com, and, with some tweaking, I was really happy with how it turned out!

Thursday, Curtis Schultz is back to give you an inside look at some of the hottest monsters from Cyberdark Impact. The Cyberdark monsters are some of the best in the set, and their ability to absorb Dragons makes them incredibly powerful. How does that effect really work though? Curtis will reveal all as he gives you the full rulings lowdown.

Julia Hedberg puts you on Solid Ground this Friday, detailing your local level OP options. Not only is this a great introductory article for local level competition, but it will also outline some of the new things you can expect from OP in your area towards the end of the year! It’s a must-read for anyone looking to expand his or her weekly dueling.

On Saturday, Jae Kim will show you a deck he calls Hardcore Hand Control. As duelists have become more sophisticated, the issue of forced simplification has become more and more prevalent, and this deck specializes in it. It goes from 60 to 0 in a heartbeat and can change the shape of the duel in the blink of an eye: you’ll want to check it out this weekend.

Finally, Matt Peddle draws our week to a close with a retrospective look at Joseph Zeng’s Top 8 Machine deck from Shonen Jump Championship Seattle. What made it so successful, and what finally brought Chimeratech Overdragon into the Top 8 spotlight? Matt will reveal all on Sunday, and tell you why this deck is a top pick for the format.

That’s it for this week! Head on back in another seven days as we gear up for Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim, and until then, keep hitting those tables!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com