It’s Monday December 10th, and with the final Shonen Jump Championship of 2007 now in the record books, it’s time to look ahead to the new year!
Phantom Darkness Sneak Previews In January!
Most duelists still haven’t had their fill of Gladiator’s Assault just quite yet, and while the official release of the next booster set is more than two months out, the Sneak Preview is officially scheduled. The Phantom Darkness Sneak Preview weekend is slated for January 26th and 27th, and everyone in attendance will receive a copy of the new TCG-exclusive monster Dark Grepher. Long-time duelists might remember Warrior Dai Grepher, and how the story of his descent into darkness was illustrated in cards like Sakuretsu Armor and Falling Down. Years later we get to see what happened to him, and if the art’s any indicator, he’s going to be one cool card.
For more details on the Phantom Darkness Sneak Preview weekend—including an event locator to help you find an event near you—just hit up the official Sneak Preview page. If there isn’t an event in your area yet, remember that Sneaks are still being scheduled and posted: keep checking the Sneak Preview page each week and you should find one close to you.
Three Shonen Jump Championships Announced for 2008
Following up on last week’s Shonen Jump news, three upcoming Championships are now posted over on the official website. Shonen Jump action will return to the FXI Show and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on January 26th. One month later, on February 23rd, Championship gold will be up for grabs again in Houston, Texas. Finally, hundreds of duelists will pour into the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Center in Columbus, Ohio on March 29th. For more info on any of those three events, just hit up the links for organizer, venue, and event times.
We’re still waiting for posted confirmation about the special 50th Shonen Jump Championship to be held in California too, and we’ll have news about that tournament when it becomes available.
World Championship 2008 Brings Three New Promo Cards
This year’s installment in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Video Game World Championship series, World Championship 2008, shipped to stores this past week. It has three exclusive promos and two of them are really worth playing: Dimensional Prison and Deep Diver. Deep Diver is a monster card that puts any monster from your deck on the top of your deck when it’s destroyed in battle, while Dimensional Prison is a variation on Sakuretsu Armor that removes the monster from play instead of just destroying it. It’s awesome against Light and Darkness Dragon, and it’s probably going to be tough to find once the dueling public catches on.
This Week On Metagame.com
This time around, I get things started with a look at what I think is one of the defining cards of this format: Forced Back. Very few duelists played this powerhouse counter trap at Shonen Jump San Mateo, but after seeing what it can do and verifying that Light and Darkness Dragon has lived up to the hype, I expect that to change. This card breaks the back of the most feared monster in the format, and I’m going to illustrate how a conditional, narrow, low-utility card can be so amazing.
Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror saw a lot of hype, but not a ton of success at San Mateo. Jerome McHale’s going to take it in a totally new direction this week though, as he creates a deck based around negating both opposing monsters and his own. Mist Archfiend, Giant Orc, and more unite with Recurring Nightmare to create a devastatingly aggressive beatdown deck that shuts down some of the format’s most popular cards.
On Wednesday, Curtis Schultz continues his investigation into important rulings surrounding the Gladiator Beasts. This week’s Duel Academy is all about the TCG-exclusive Gladiators Japan never got, and the unique effects that support the Gladiator theme. Gladiator Beast Octavius and Torax take center stage and Curtis shares some cool combos, followed by important info on Colosseum - Cage of the Gladiator Beasts.
Thursday in The Apotheosis, Matt Murphy takes on a deck that mixes Earth Rush, Machine OTK, and Return from the Different Dimension all into one strategy—without cutting any of those themes! A whopping thirty monsters make for a surprisingly competitive strategy, and you won’t want to miss how Matt manages to pull off this stunning feat.
On Friday, Bryan Camareno will re-visit one of the most important topics of his column—enhancing your skills as a duelist by managing your own failures. Want to become a better player fast? Bryan’s going to show you how, and this time around he’s refined his advice and discusses specific techniques you can use to make sure you learn important lessons when they’re presented. If you’re a competitive duelist or would like to become one, this article’s going to be useful.
Jerry Wang made a big impact last weekend at San Mateo, when he took a superior Light and Darkness Dragon build all the way to the finals. While Fili Luna’s 45-card Light and Darkness deck took home the Championship, Wang’s deck is the one that you’ll benefit the most from studying, so Matt Peddle’s going to take it apart in this week’s installment of The Champions. What made Wang’s build so good, and what can you take from his success? Matt will tell all on Saturday.
Finally, Ryan Murphy shifts gears a bit to finish out our week on a fun note, putting together a Yugi Muto deck for the Traditional format. The result is a really cool strategy packed with classic Yugi cards like Dark Magician, Magical Hats, and Magic Cylinder. Yugi fans looking to relive the pint-sized duelist’s favorite adventures will definitely want to check this one out.
That’s it for this week, so see in you in another seven days!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com