New Playmat for Upcoming Regionals

With Tactical Evolution now behind us, the folks over in Upper Deck Entertainment’s Organized Play program have started showing off the new Regional Playmat—Elemental Hero Chaos Neos. Check it out!

 

Cooler than the Rainbow Dragon mat? A lot of duelists seem to think so, since Chaos Neos’s character design is a little darker than that of Jesse’s dragon pal. If you want to win one for yourself, all you have to do is make the Top 8 at an upcoming Regional Championship or be one of the four lucky door prize winners at a Regional event. There are almost a hundred North American Regional Championships taking place over the next three months alone—an impressive number since December is often the “off season” for trading card games. Click on over to the Regional Championship Locator to find events in your area.

The all-new mat is part of UDE’s new initiative this year to rotate playmats given as OP rewards more frequently, making them more collectible and valuable in the long run. The Chaos Neos mat should be taking down a pretty penny on the secondary market, just like Rainbow Dragon did when it first hit the streets. Of course, expect the Rainbow Dragon mat to increase in value too now that it’s out of print.

Hobby Stores Get Error Version of Chaos Neos Ghost Rare

Lucky duelists who purchased boosters of Gladiator’s Assault at their local hobby store this past week were a bit confused when they pulled the set’s ghost rare. Turns out that due to an error in the first edition print run reserved for hobby store stock, the ghost rare version of Elemental Hero Chaos Neos is actually named “Rainbow Dragon.” Since this error is only present in North American boosters and did not affect packs sold at retail chains like Target or Wal-Mart, I’d expect the error version to have a high collector’s value over the coming months. 

Less Than Two Weeks Till Shonen Jump San Mateo

It’s been a month since Zombies faced Zombies in the mirror-match finale of Shonen Jump Championship Durham. Now we’re less than two weeks away from what’s practically a brand new format, as duelists prepare to head into battle at Shonen Jump San Mateo!

Light and Darkness Dragon, Marshmallon, Shield Crush, Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor, Necroface, Soul Taker, Foolish Burial, and dozens of other cards will be premier-legal for the first time ever come December 1^st. The field is unpredictable, but most duelists are placing their wagers on Light and Darkness Dragon, a force that has driven Destiny Draw alone to double what its secondary market value was four weeks ago. With so many new cards and strategies debuting at this event, there are no sure-fire bets for the format, but we can expect experienced deck builders and highly adaptive duelists to do better than others. There’s just nothing to netdeck headed into this tournament.

If you’re considering heading out to compete, but haven’t made your arrangements yet, then now is the time! You can find the official event listing on UDE’s site right here at the Shonen Jump Championship event locator. It’s got all the date, venue, and contact information you’ll need. Then, hit up the website for Premier Tournament Organizer Cascade Games for info on hotels, event times, prizes, side tournaments, and more.

Can’t make it to the San Mateo Expo Center to be part of the action? Join us right here on Metagame.com on December 1^st and 2^nd, because we’ll be coming to you live from the tournament floor to bring you all the news as it develops. This event’s going to have a huge impact on competitions worldwide for the next few months, so be sure to read all the coverage to stay on the cutting edge.

This Week on Metagame.com      

Today I take a look at an unlikely pick from Gladiator’s Assault: Security Orb. Like you, I didn’t see much to this new trap card when I cracked my first copy. But after taking a bit more time to think about it, I really think there could be something to this world-debut card, and I’ll show you why. I’ll also demonstrate some cool tricks that make Security Orb a lot more useful than it might first appear.

On Tuesday, Jerome McHale takes some inspiration from Bob Ross, as he creates a deck he calls “Happy Little Clouds.” One of the deadliest ways to play the new Cloudian monsters is to use them in conjunction with damage-negating effects to stall out. That lets you take your sweet time to burn or deck your opponent, or even aim for an alternate win condition. Jerome pursues the latter option and lays the groundwork for a seminal Cloudian stall build, so if you want to try out Adrian Gecko’s cards, I’d say this article is a must-read.

For the past two weeks, Curtis Schultz has focused his lessons in Duel Academy on the newest powerhouse sensation to hit dueling: Light and Darkness Dragon. This week, he pens the third installment in what will be four articles total answering various questions about the Dragon, and this is another gotta-read-it column for any competitive player. Flat out, if you don’t know how this card works, you won’t be able to compete over the next half year. You’ll definitely want to check this out.

Speaking of Light and Darkness Dragon, Matt Murphy fixes up a very typical LADD build this week in The Apotheosis. Minor tweaks are the order of the day this time around, as Matt deconstructs a reader deck called “Draconic Chiaroscuro” (isn’t that a great name?) in order to outline how to build a successful Light and Darkness Dragon build. A tough metagame provides extra challenge for one of Matt’s best fixes yet.

It’s been said time and again: if you want to be a better duelist, then practice is the key. But where do the best players find all that time to duel and learn their techniques? Making time to play your favorite game isn’t always easy, and this week’s Practical Duelist is going to show you how you can accomplish that. Bryan Camareno shows you time management tips that will help you hone your skills, this Friday.

On Saturday, Matt Peddle examines Augustin Herrera’s deck from Shonen Jump Chicago, an evolution of Comic Odyssey Burn that redefined the deck’s strategy and brought it well into the sphere of the duelist who didn’t own Crush Card Virus. The secret? Machines took the place of Dark monsters, creating more aggression and a much more fearsome strategy. Matt will show you how Herrera’s deck found such dominance.

Then Ryan Murphy wraps up our week with a look at an innovative deck for Traditional play in The Forgotten Format. Special summons often rule duels, and in a format where summoning is substantially easier, The Creator has the opportunity to reign supreme. That’s the premise Ryan works with this Sunday, as he creates a minimalist Creator build that can go off in big ways. If you’ve been looking for a Traditional strategy that’s a little less, well, traditional, this is the deck you’ve been waiting for.

That’s it for this week, but stop by in another seven days for more dueling news and another look at our next week of articles. As always, thanks for reading Metagame.com!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com