It’s Monday, March 17, 2008, and we’re less than two weeks away from Shonen Jump Championship Columbus and the new Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Gold Series!
Gold Series Launches Later This Month
An upcoming series featuring some of the game’s best and rarest cards will arrive toward the end of this month, debuting an all-new foil technology to boot. Details about the Gold Series are being kept under wraps for now, but here’s what we know:
-Each "pack" is actually a box and comes with twenty-five random cards
-Three cards in each pack/box will feature the new rarity and gold treatment
-The complete set consists of forty-five cards total
-Crush Card Virus, Mirror Force, Jinzo, and Don Zaloog are confirmed to be in Gold Series
Gold Series is packaged in five-box displays (instead of twenty-four-pack displays like regular booster sets), and it’s a Hobby Exclusive item—so only local, independently run hobby stores will have it. "Hobby Exclusive" means stores like Wal-Mart and Target will not get to stock Gold Series. Don’t get confused with "Hobby League" either—the two are unrelated.
Right now, it’s unconfirmed, but highly suspected, that all cards in the set will be reprints. A recent press release announced that eighteen of the reprints are rendered in the new gold foil tech too, so it should be a great chance to get cards you missed out on, or to upgrade your deck.
A few different release dates are being circulated by retailers, with rumors of a slight delay from the original March 26 release. Right now, stores in my area are giving a March 28 release date, but I’d recommend calling your local hobby retailer to find out when they’ll be getting their shipment of Gold Series. If this is all news to you, I’d really suggest pre-ordering if your store will let you do so: Crush Card Virus alone means Gold Series will probably sell out fast.
Shonen Jump Championship Columbus
Scheduled for March 29–30, 2008, we are less than two weeks away from the next tournament in the Shonen Jump series—Shonen Jump Championship Columbus! Previously, the site of one of the biggest Shonen Jump Championships ever, the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Center will be packed with hundreds of duelists duking it out for iPods, Wiis, Nintendo DS systems, and copies of Doomcaliber Knight.
With Dark Armed Dragon Return absolutely dominating the Day 2 field at Shonen Jump Championship Costa Mesa, we’ll probably see one of two things: a sea of Dark Armed Dragons, or a slightly smaller sea of them met by innovative duelists attempting to defeat the format’s deck to beat. As of yet, a number of anti-metagame options, such as Counter Fairies and some historically significant rush variants, have yet to see much Shonen Jump play, so they might represent the next step toward defeating the Dragon. At the same time, Lazaro Bellido’s success with a teched version of Dark Armed Return may inspire other duelists to get creative within the theme.
If you’re interested in heading to Columbus but still need all the details, be sure to hit up the official event listing over on UDE’s official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG site. Then, head over to Professional Event Service’s website for more info from the Premier Tournament Organizer for this Shonen Jump Championship. There you’ll find information on event registration, side events, prizes, and more.
Can’t make it? Metagame.com will be bringing you full coverage live from the tournament floor all weekend long. So if you can’t be there in person, we’re your best bet for all the details. Columbus Shonen Jumps are always a blast because they bring in duelists from all over North America. With some of the world’s best, and most-celebrated, competitors sure to be in attendance, this tournament might be a big turning point for the year.
Team Dueling at the American National Championships
Details of a big Team Dueling tournament at the American National Championships were released earlier this month. The event will likely be held on the Friday before the main event or the Sunday afterward, which is good news because you won't have to give up playing in Nationals to participate. This is an all-time first for dueling in North America, and it’s going to be a total blast: embodying the spirit of the Team Dueling format, this event’s going to be more about fun-factor and the thrill of the duel, rather than destroying your opposition.
So, how do you get to play in this unique tournament? It's going to be open to any two-man teams that wish to participate, but if you want to circumvent the registration fee and earn some creds (and swag!) along the way, you’ve got options. Hobby League kits going out this month will include four Team Dueling deck boxes and four certificates. These can be used as prize support for one or two Team Dueling tournaments. If the Hobby League organizer decides to run one event, then each member of the top two teams will receive a certificate and a deck box. If two events are run, then the winning team from each event will walk away with the loot.
Regional Qualifier kits will include two certificates and two Team Dueling deck boxes as well, so TOs running Regionals will be able to offer a Team Dueling side event at their tournaments. Cool stuff, and good news for anyone who doesn't have a Hobby League in their area.
Deck boxes are pretty self-explanatory, but the certificates warrant a little discussion. Basically, when you win a Team Dueling certificate it’s filled out with the names of you and your teammate, the store or tournament you competed at, and the date of your achievement. Each team member gets one such certificate, and when you show up to the Team Dueling event at Nationals you can present your certificate to get free entry. It's a nice bonus for supporting the new format at your local level.
Prizes for this tournament are unannounced at the moment, but since the emphasis is on fun rather than face-pounding competitiveness, they'll probably be in line with that agenda. A strong showing for this event could lead to even bigger and better things for Team Dueling in the future, so if you’re interested in the format I’d recommend heading out to show your enthusiasm. We’ll have more details on Team Dueling at the National Championships as they become available.
This Week on Metagame.com
With Shonen Jump Championship Costa Mesa now on the books, it seems like most of our writers this week are using their columns to reflect on the results of that event. I know I did. Today in The Binder, I take a look at a card that I think can stop Dark Armed Dragon Return in its tracks: Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord. After seeing how Dark Armed Dragon Return works firsthand (and ad nauseum at that), I’m convinced that Van’Dalgyon and the cards it works with rip into some very specific play patterns that the deck has consistently demonstrated. Click on over, and read all about it.
Tomorrow, Jerome McHale twists together two powerful anti-metagame strategies, combining Gadgets with Counter Fairies. Two Gadget decks made it to Day 2 in Costa Mesa, but at the end of the weekend, they fell short of the impact many thought they should have. Jerome reflects on the reasons behind their failures, while proposing an innovative strategy that patches up the holes. This article’s very interesting, and even if you don’t plan on running Jerome’s build, both Gadget players and Counter Fairy duelists will want to check it out.
On Wednedsay, Curtis Schultz shifts gears to look at the most popular upcoming card from Gold Series—Crush Card Virus! With thousands of duelists getting ready to claim a Crush Card of their own later this month, it’s the perfect time for a little rulings review, and Curtis delivers by answering some of the most pressing questions about this devastating prize card. Timing issues, ATK penalties, and more are the order of the day this week in Duelist Academy.
Then, Brian Bodkin joins us to suggest some spot-on innovations to the currently successful Dark Armed Dragon Return deck. Top-notch competitors at Costa Mesa described Dark Armed Return mirror matches as "a coin flip," but Brian’s going to show you how to get an edge in that very matchup. There’s a lot more to it than luck, in this week’s Looking at the Overlooked.
Friday, Bryan Camareno takes up where I left off last week in my article on Goblin Zombie. Bryan’s studied up, and he believes (like many) that Zombies may have a place in the new, speed-oriented metagames we’re seeing all over Western territories. He’s going to explain why and how you can take advantage of recent trends to take on the top decks, all at the surprisingly fast speed of the shambling undead.
Saturday, Matt Peddle drops one of my favorite articles this week! It’s no secret that Lazaro Bellido took deckbuilding and play style to new heights to outdo 1,055 other duelists in Costa Mesa. And Matt’s going to show you what made Bellido’s deck so different. Luck? No chance. Matt will dissect his teammates build to demonstrate all the little tricks and techs that made Lazaro our fiftieth Shonen Jump Champion.
Finally, I’ll fill in for Ryan Murphy as he spends ten days off the grid in beautiful Vietnam. I don’t know, maybe he’s not in the beautiful part, but if we’re lucky he’ll at least make it back in one piece. In the meantime, I want to highlight the specific weaknesses of Dark Armed Return that I witnessed at Costa Mesa, discussing where and when to hit to disable the deadliest deck in this format. Dark Armed may seem invincible, but understanding its range of Achilles’ heels will help you defeat it.
That’s it for this week, but head back in another seven days! Things are heating up as we count down to Shonen Jump Championship Columbus, so be sure to join us as we continue to dissect and reflect on the metagame trends emerging from Costa Mesa.
See you then!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com