11th Nov - Ken Sirr's "Birthday"

Slightly late but ...

11.11(11th Nov) is the unofficial 'birth date' of Ken Sirr, the Yugioh side of my life and around the time I decided to start writing and blogging. 

(Not my actual birthday)

Purely by coincidence. But also coincidentally appropriate, since it was 'Single's day'. The journey since the start has been anything but uneventful. It started out as a solo journey, a single one, one without friends, without acquaintances and without a community.

Entering 20s, life has been pretty interesting and overwhelming. Many changes are happening, both constantly and simultaneously. Facing responsibilities in various different ways, I can no longer play as much as I want to.

I would love to be more involved, as involved as I once was, in many aspects of the game. But sometimes, 'Life gets in the way'. And the only answer I have found is to brave through the current battles, end them, in order to make way and make room for other things in life.

Sometimes to do things I want and like to do, I have to first complete the things I hate and need to do. Guess that's how life works... and I have been slowly trying to figure that out.

Will I be able to play as much as I used to, and enjoy the game as much as I used to? I don't know, but I hope to find out one day. Thanks to everyone who understands, thanks to everyone who doesn't blame me. 

Thanks to anyone who is still visiting this page and reading this, and I hope that we can all see Dueling C come back to life together once more, in one way or another.


-11th Nov 2019
(Soon, until next time...)

Dueling C - June Update

Hey everyone how has it been? Been a while so I figured it was time for another few updatess about Dueling C's Yu-Gi-Oh Journey.


GeoTheBacon made it to represent Singapore as the top ranking performer of our country. He will be headed to Taiwan in June for the Asia Championship, along with Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship 2019 Singapore Qualifier Champion - Winson Lim to represent Singapore.

I have finally got my life in order again for Yu-Gi-Oh! to continue being a part of it. Started doing videos for BeyondTheDuel Youtube. So far there is only Video #1 but hey, we all start somewhere.

I am trying to re-enter the competitive scene for some fun but for now, with the format ending soon, I am more incentivised to prepare for the next instead. And I need to find another viable and fun deck to play now that I have missed out on a year or so lol.

Our plans to import the website to another place hasn't been so smooth-sailing/effective LOL. GeoTheBacon was busy with playing and not so interested in the back-end stuff so moving forward, we may be stuck with blogger for another year or so LOL.
I am experimenting with other sites for other purposes.

Hopefully the content-creation wheel can start turning again. I mentioned we have had plans, and these few months is the start of making such plans a reality. It is nice to see the game grow locally, as the player base seems to be increasing or at least, maintaining. Events and games are always fun with friendly bases and a healthy community. The game means different things to everyone, and meeting everyone from all walks of life, is something that I, in my 20s, am starting to appreciate.

If you have any questions/complaints please list down below. Since this is an update post, I am more open to share about things, because I am not very sure of what to write down too. (Which is why I know I have to start playing again lol)

But meanwhile, you can check out my articles on Ygoprodeck or head down to our Youtube.

GeoTheBacon's Journey to Top 32 in Yu-Gi-Oh! Open Tournament Malaysia

Hi everyone! It is I GeoTheBacon, this time I am here to share with you all my journey of me reaching top 32 in the first ever Yu-Gi-Oh! Open Tournament (YOT) to be hosted in Malaysia!


If you are interested in our video journey there, you can watch the Vlog up here!

For the benefit of the uninitiated, YOT is a Yu-Gi-Oh! event hosted in various country in Asia usually twice a year. YOT is in a sense the YCS of OCG Yu-Gi-Oh!. This YOTMY had a turnout of roughly 400 participants thus the tournament format was 8 round Swiss and cut to top 64.

So as you can see above, I have chosen the Salamangreat deck to be my partner in this endeavor. What a SalamanGreat idea huh?  Jokes aside, I chosen this deck due to it's ability to be compatible with housing a lot of Hand traps without hurting it's consistency and let's not forget the deck's ability to recycle it's resources almost indefinitely.

Day 1 - 8 Round Swiss

Round 1 - 2

I get to skip playing for the first 2 round as I manage to get second place in a local regional back in Singapore before the YOT, earning me 2 Byes or in other words 2 free wins for the first 2 rounds.

In all honesty, the Byes are a double edge sword. Imagine round 3, your opponent have just won their first 2 matches and is fully warmed up plus they are on a winning streak. It is a bit hard to break their momentum that way and get your own started.



Round 3 - XX

My first match of the day! And I am up against... Thunder Dragons!

Starting off the match, I lost the dice roll and ended up going second. If that was not bad enough, my opening hand had a strange absence of Hand Traps and both the Salamangreat Sanctuary and Salamangreat Falco graced it with their presences. Leaving me unable to set up any field nor disrupt my opponent's field. Leading to a quick death on turn 3.

Not being discouraged, I opted to go first and guess who came to visit my hand again? If you guessed the Salamangreat Sanctuary and Salamangreat Falco then you are right! Despair started setting in the came acceptance. Being unable to set up any field presences I Instantly got defeated in the coming turn.

I guess this is not really a good way to start the day huh? However, not being discouraged, I requested some assistance from friends to play a few mock games on the side before the next round to help me warm up!

Round 4 - xx

Let see what I am up against for my second match of the day... and it's Subterror! Great... now half of my Hand Traps are useless, hopefully I won't draw into them.

Losing the dice roll yet again, I ended up going second, and guess who came to my opening hand to say hi? My lovely Hand Traps, Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and Maxx "C". Usually, I would be happy to see them but my opponent is using Subterror... so... but it gets better when my top draw reveals a second Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay. I swiftly gave up and moved onto the next game.

Going first this time, I was confident as I managed to set up my field with the Salamangreat Roar. However, during the standby phase of my opponent's turn he activated Super Polymerization. Well you can pretty much guess what happen next.

Once again, I chose not to give up as I was still not out of the running yet as long as I don't lose another game. So I continue to ask my friends to assist me in warming up in hopes that it helps me.



Round 5 - OO

Going into my third match with the mindset that I cannot afford to lose another match, I was completely focused. This time my opponent was using Guardragons, finally a deck that I am confident to fight against.

Once again I lost the dice roll resulting in my opponent going first yet again. However, this time my opponent's hand was not that good, as all it took to stop his combo was one Infinite Impermanence on his Ib the World Chalice Miko effect ending his turn.

Now, my turn as there is only one Ib the World Chalice Miko  on my opponent's field, I set up my field with and destroy Ib the World Chalice Miko and the Guardragon summoned by Ib the World Chalice Miko via battle. I then ended my turn with just a reincarnated Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf, Salamangreat Miragestallio, 2 face-down Called By The Grave, and 1 face-down Infinite Impermanence.

Back to my opponent again, he tried to revive his normal dragon by using Guardragon mini's effect, but was stopped by my first Called By The Grave. He then try to revive his Ib the World Chalice Miko by using revival spell to link zone in an attempt to summon it to my salamangreat Sunlight Wolf's link zone but it was stopped by my second Called By The Grave. Leading to him surrendering this game.

Game 2, my opponent chose to go first, however I started my hand with Maxx "C", 2 Effect Veiler, Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, and Salamangreat Gazelle. Once my opponent started his combo, I threw Maxx "C" and he took on the Maxx "C" challenge and continued his combo but came to a complete stop when I threw Effect Veiler on his Guardragon Elpy, and when he tried to use his Guardragon Pisty I used my Second Effect Veiler, this brought a complete stop to his combo and ending with my hand size being relatively big.

In came my turn, with the huge number of resources in my hand I proceeded to set up my field and when for the OTK.

Finally, I won my first game, and as a bonus I found out after the game that my opponent was actually playing Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition

Round 6 - ??

I sat down at my seat awaiting my next opponent. 10 full minutes later, my opponent did not show up. Resulting in an instant match win. Well a win is a win even if it is a free one, I am not going to complain about it.


Round 7 - OO

2 rounds left and 2 more wins away from making the top cut, I met my opponent who wields a Orcust deck.

Guess if I won my dice roll? Of course not, losing the dice roll for the third time. Going second with a Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and 2 Effect Veilers in my hand. I used Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay when he summoned his Knightmare Cerberus, and 1 Effect Veiler on his Knightmare Mermaid, essentially stopping his combo dead in the tracks.

My turn, I manage to clear his board completely, it was not really difficult as there was only 1 Knightmare Mermaid and I proceeded to lock him out of his next turn by summoning Abyss Dweller.

His turn again, I activated Abyss Dweller's effect during his standby phase, causing him to not be able to do anything this turn and allowing me to finish his Life Points the very next turn.

Game 2

He chose to go first, however I started with a lot of Hand Traps yet again and this time I have the newly sided in Artifact Lancea. I was able to prevent him from making any significant board presences at all.

My turn, I cleared his board and proceeded to summon Abyss Dweller again, sealing his fate for this game.

Not being able to do much on his next turn, I proceeded to finish him my very next turn.



Round 8 - OO

Last Swiss round, all that stand in between me and making it to the top cut is my next opponent.

For the first time that day, I won the dice roll and chose to go first. I manage to set up my field with the Salamangreat Roar face down despite my opponent using Maxx "C", and that is all thanks to my Haru which I retrieve using Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf's effect.

Next up my opponent's turn, he normal summoned Lady Debug, which I proceeded to prevent the search by using my freshly retrieved Haru. He then Link summon Salamangreat Balelynx which I took the chance to summon Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, thus allowing me to shuffle back the field spell I searched previous turn back, trading it for newer cards. He then proceeded to end turn.

My turn, as my opponent did not manage to set up his field properly, I broke down his field bit by bit. I continued to set up my field further, this place me way ahead in terms of resources and allowed me to slowly shave away his LifePoints.

Game 2

He chose to go first after siding, however as my hand started with 4 hand traps; Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, Effect Veiler, Infinite Impermanence, and D.D. Crow. I manage to prevent any form of field presences that my opponent can build. However, my hand was not that fantastic as I did not have a single Salamangreat card in my hand.

My turn came and I drew Lady Debug, talk about lucky. I then started to build my board and once again I was ahead in terms of resources and manage to win my second game.

With this I manage to make it for the second day by making the top 64 cut.

Day 2 - Top 64 Cut


(Top 64) Round 1 - OO

To summarize what happen in both game, I started off with 4 Hand Traps in hand including 1 Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, which I used to control my opponent, not letting him set up any field and win him by out resourcing him.






(Top 32) Round 2 - xx

Guess my dice roll winning streak ends here.

My opponent went first and summoned Inspector Boarder and ended his turn with 3 face down cards.

I had Infinite Impermanence in my hand, but the rest of my cards in my hand was other hand trap and Salamangreat Roar and a strange absences of Salamangreat monsters. I proceeded to just end my turn without doing anything.

My opponent proceeded to activate Trickstar Lightstage and he searched for Trickstar Cardina and he normal summoned it and proceeded to shave 4000 off my life points.

Game 2, guess who came back to visit my starting hand? Salamangreat Falco and Salamangreat Sanctuary. Without able to set up a proper field I was easily dispatched and lost the game.



Conclusion

I guess this is as far as I can go at the moment huh? Well considering I only played Salamangreat about for 3 to 4 weeks before I came for YOT Malaysia, I think I did pretty good. Anyway, thanks for reading! See you in the next article!

 

Blog Update: YOTMY2019

Just a short update:

Blog Update: Asia Championship Winter 2019 Experience

Post-event experience.
For sharing and also for my own archival purposes.

Blog Update: January 2019

Greetings everyone, and a Happy New Year.
Insert (May 2019 be a great year for everyone) blessing.

It has been a hectic few weeks for me, as usual.

Last Leg of 2019

Before Christmas was my family's spring cleaning episode. Those who followed me on twitter would have seen how much I lamented about cards packing and clearing.

After Christmas,  I actually flew back to my neighboring country in Malaysia. I would have been unable to make it for Chinese New Year in Feb, so this is a early family visit to my Grandma.

Here are some pictures for everyone to get a feel of the countryside surroundings:

We did have Wi-fi, but it is pretty unstable. Also, the family interrogation and meals kept me busy, I was also busy fending off mosquitoes.

Road Bumps

Other metaphorical road bumps I had was the repair progress of my other laptop. It had some hardware issues that caused it to keep crashing, and I prefer to blog (esp longer articles) using that laptop since it has a better keyboard 'feel' and a larger screen. My image files for Yu-Gi-Oh, my Discord, Ygopro apps are also all on that laptop since this  smaller one doesn't have enough space or sufficient hardware to support gaming.
(For those re-following the blog, It's the heavy 2kg gaming laptop)
The repair was delayed over the Christmas and New Year break.

2019

As for 2019, Dueling "C" hopes to remain on the blogging scene. taking on a more casual and opinionated approach to articles:

• Sharing of decklists
• Meta/Anime/Card discussion, opinions
• Event experience (Since I am not really a vblog guy)

Other articles, which I consider to be more stringently structured and streamlined, will find its home on the other sites.

What You Should Know
I am keen to continue my [What You Should Know] series on Ygoprodeck, but I am still trying to find a resourceful archetype for me to write on. What kept me from continuing on the series (back then) was the lack of sufficient content to write, as archetypes became more straightforward in their goals and endgame.

(Lockdown, OTK) as opposed to (Resource farming, rushing out monsters)

True Draco was an archetype that was introduced in the OCG miles ahead from what the TCG would have had. My goal for [What You Should Know] was to clear some misconception of the archetype's play style.
Recent decks such as Good-Stuff Link and 60-card Gouki were interesting decks, but failed to provide enough 'meat' for an article, since the function of most cards are obvious enough at first glance.
Of course, if the opportunity arises again, I would definitely jump on it.


Character Spotlight
I really enjoy writing these sort of articles, analysing the characters. I have previously done one for Zane and Bastion. (I enjoy writing in the form of a passive voice).
I am not sure how many readers would be interested in these though.

GX was one of my favourite series and revisiting these characters under a different lens a few years after the series ended does provide fresh outlook. Moving forward, I hope to cover some 5D's characters such as Crow, Akiza, Bruno and Jack, since 5D's remains as my favorite anime series.


Single-Card Discussions
Previous Single-Card Discussion have seen much success. (Link and Link)
However, a prominent trend I am noticing is that tech cards in Yugioh are becoming rotate out faster in recent formats, lasting only for a few weeks.



kensir096.blogspot.com is likely to remain. I have given much thought about porting over to another website with a more user-friendly interface than blogger, but creating another site on Wordpress feels redundant.
I feel that blogging wise, there is much cleaning up to do, in terms of how I organise my blog and articles It's currently still up in the air, as I have to focus on my next event.

Moving Forward

A news I would like to bring forward to everyone would be my participation in ACQ 2019 for event coverage.
Articles will be uploaded to BeyondTheDuel and Ygoevent.wordpress.

Details for ACQ Winter 2019



To everyone going, see you there. Be sure to say hi if we meet.

Blog Update: Ken Sir is alive.

Hi guys. Ken Sir here.
Well that's a name you haven't heard in a while eh?
Hello. lol.

Celebrating my return with my fav pic from the blog

Hello again

First off, allow me to apologise before I explain my complete absence for the past 10 months of so. I think I last logged into my accounts as Ken Sir around March (?) from the looks of my Facebook.

• Funny story - it all actually started with me changing my computer, losing my password, then getting lazy to reset it.
• Combined with the fact that my gaming laptop is a bulky 17inch, 2.5kg which I left at home for majority of the year. (I moved to my College dorm since my freshmen year).
• Yugioh stuff (images, decklist, ygopro) , Overwatch, L4D2, Dota, League of Legends etc are all in that said bulky laptop. (I swapped into a lighter and  Lenovo model which would actually let me see the lecture tables when I place my laptop on the tables.
  17inch-2.5kg just cover the entire lecture tables.

Explanation time:

So, I moved to College. I actually didn't move out of my country. It is a local college, and like I mentioned, I stayed on campus. This actually started quite a while ago, last year around August 2017 when my Freshmen semester started. But my first semester was a rather light one, which explains why I could still be involved in YOTSG2017 last December.
However, starting January, things started to pile up.
Assignments, tests and projects.
Being in college, and also in dorm, I joined clubs and co-curriculum activities. That took up more than half my time each day. Suddenly from a carefree day to day life I used to have, I had more responsibilities and social obligations to fulfil. For a while it was really a big change in lifestyle for me.


I also got more involved in sports. Well, we all have/had a life before Yugioh and apart from Yugioh right? I joined my dorm's Squash club and Recreational Slowpitch Softball club. Being a part of a community meant I have the chance to join these teams. Softball was something I previously did in my teenage years and it is nice to be able to revisit this aspect of my life.
Trainings were on Tuesday evenings and Saturdays and with that...

• Saturdays went from visiting locals at 1pm
• to Wake at 9, train til 12, lunch and then nap, then dinner with teammates 

So that meant that I couldn't attend Sat locals. And usually, Sun would be my rest day or rush-assignments day. Otherwise, after spending 6 days of the week away from home, a day with the family is really really much-needed.

Summer (May to July) was another busy period for me, despite the fact that there were no classes. I was involved in two separate events, as part of the planning committee. These were for the orientation programmes for the incoming freshmen. September arrived, and my second year of college begun. And another busy semester that didn't treat me so well. I also took on some leadership roles in the clubs and societies I am in, which burdened me with workload and paperwork. Once again, Yu-Gi-Oh as a pass time was out of the question.

And now in December, my semester has just ended. I reconnected with my friends and got a sense of how 'Link Monsters are meant to slow down the game'. Lol obviously it didn't even do that.


Contrary to popular speculation (which I am flattered that people would assume so), I am actually not seeing anybody special LOL. Nope, still single, not dating. Wasn't a girl or relationship that brought me out of the game. 

Moving Forward

Yu-Gi-Oh! has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I played it as early as a kid, when i was 10, before I even knew the rules of the game. I slowly progressed and played throughout my teens, learning and making new friends.

A trip down the memory lane:

• My first deck was a warrior deck, from a warrior Structure Deck my friend bought for me as a birthday present. Colossal Fighter became, and still is today, my favourite card that day.
• I went on to play Junk Doppel after I learned it topped a local Asia, since I was also a Yusei & 5D's fan.
• Chaos Dragon caught my eye next. It was the first deck I formed from scratch, scouting for cards, buying Structure Decks etc. Unfortunately I was late to the party. Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon was hit along with Future Fusion. I ended up entering the competitive scene during the Dragon Ruler era.
• Chaos Dragon research led me to explore the Ninja engine, and I discovered the Hieratic engine. Soon, I jumped on the hype train and played Hieratic Dragon Rulers for a while. It was a fun time wit the OTKs that the deck can consistently dish out.
• After that I rotated frequently between HEROes and Tellarknights before stubbornly sticking to Yosenju for longer than I should.
• It was around this time I got to make more friends in the game and found other 'loners' like me. The first interation of Dueling C was formed with just four people, albeit an unofficial formation. One left and more joined, becoming the group of friends we are today.
• The rest of this part of my history would probably be on the blog. I went back to read through a few posts, and despite their lazy formatting and representation, sometimes even lazy reporting, I choose to keep them as it is as I think it shows the improvement and change in my blog posts.

Team Dueling "C', otherwise known as Team Di3-jo-bu is pretty intact throughout 2018. Although most of us have also stopped attending locals regularly. GeoTheBacon was the only one that remained.

• SanganFTK enlisted due to his National Service obligations.
• K.Xavage and DAM SON were focus on their tertiary education,
• whereas Burning Herpes and I did the same, being overly and unhealthy involved in our College and Dormitory life, even though in many aspects of it, our hard work and efforts paid off.

As just a team of friends just playing the game, I feel that we have really come a long way. Especially this blog. I initially founded it alone due to my interest in writing combined with my love for the game. Soon I was joined by many others and even though they don't blog regularly, we had fun discussing blog topics and dissing each other. Basically your textbook-guy-circle type of friendship.

I was just a guy that wanted to have fun. I recall the days when I wondered if anyone else would even want to read the adventures of a player in a small country in Southeast Asia. OCG, no less. I vividly remember how I felt when I wrote the first post of the blog. Back then I expected myself to be the only one who will ever read it. Turns out that wasn't the case and somehow our view count started to accumulate. Things snowballed, and I was offered opportunities to write at events and other sites as well. Was, am, and will always be thankful for things like this.

I do admit it was a pity that something I worked hard towards was tossed aside when I left so abruptly without any warning and I thank anyone who is still invested/interested enough in this blog to be reading this now. Viewership will drop, definitely, but I have never been concerned with just views. It was the pride of ideas and sharing them that made me feel that blogging is something worth continuing. But what I do admit is that I probably disappointed or left many people puzzled with my Davidcopperfield act. And for those who were patiently waiting for an update to the blog, thank you, and congratulations.

But back then, with my College commitments and workload, my life was slowly falling apart into pieces as I found less and less time for myself. My understanding of the game slipped from my hands slowly, and I couldn't will myself back into the game. Slowly, days became weeks and weeks became months. I wasn't in a good enough place in life to be investing time in my hobbies, especially Yugioh.
Had a couple of family issues and personal problems to add into the mix of my new hectic lifestyle. And I didn't have enough knowledge to be blogging about the game. And the last thing I want is for me to not know what I am blogging about, or blogging for the sake of blogging. I feel that this goes against my personal philosophy and principle, something which I couldn't compromise upon. So while it wasn't the best course of action, I decided to stop rather than struggle and carry on writing content which I would not enjoy writing.

I felt that I have grown plenty in the past year, learning many tangible and intangible lessons. This year has probably been the most eventful year in my recent years, and I believe it is one of the many turning points in my life. A couple of writing modules I took in College helped me look at blogging from a different perspective. And look at life from a different perspective, generally.

After a long while of constantly playing Yugioh on a weekly basis, I think more often than not I started to ask myself if I was contented with being the 'guy that just wanted to keep having fun day to day'. I didn't feel fully comfortable with the place I was in my life, which was why I opted to quit the competitive and take a step back to the sidelines. But even that didn't really solve my 'life crisis issue'.

Gladly, along the road despite a few hurdles, I am able to see things differently and move myself to a better spot in life (emotionally and spiritually speaking). I am in a much better place now, after a tough year. And I hope that 2019 is better (wow the year is really ending), and I am glad to be back to the game, the community and back to blogging.

The future 

Cue poster boy for Future/Hope/Friendship/you can't negate friendship

As of now, I am unsure where Dueling "C" is headed in the near future.
Content-wise, I will have to revamp/redesign the direction of the blog, to provide it with a more streamlined idea of what type of content the blog should be focused on, and how regularly should I update it. 

I am keen to keep this blog, or a blog, while at the same time, restarting work on my previous 'workplaces' - BeyondTheDuel, Ygoprodeck. I hope to be able to meet some personal milestones I set for myself, which is to consistently push out quality articles.

I am open to the idea of changing our blog domain. I started out using Blogspot because it was the old trendy option and it was linked to Google accounts, which I found convenient. Old trendy meaning it was the domain where old blogs like DuelingSociety and DuelingDays use to reside in.

Either way, I will be sure to leave a link to direct readers to the new site if we ever change our site. And regardless, we will leave this blog here so that the old posts can be revisited by us or any other viewers whenever interested.

Youtube......
Many did suggest it to me but honestly videos and talking to a camera isn't really my thing. I prefer putting my thoughts into words and pictures.
I won't exclude the possibility of a Dueling C Youtube Channel though. I would like to upload game matches every now and then. (Especially Goat Format)
But if so, that will be another platform that I have to regularly update and manage. So I really have to think this through before I commit to the idea.

But you guys can commit Krad/GoeTheBacon to start his own personal Youtube channel.

Conclusion

Long story short: Life changes + Poor time management contributed to my sudden disappearance.

I want to thank my friends and acquaintances for checking in on me. Sorry for not replying sometimes. I wasn't in the best place in life.

Thanks to everyone who welcomed me back with open arms and waited for me in patience.




As you can see, the structure of this blog post is slightly disorientated and the formatting is very casual. I kinda lost track of all my blog settings, so I have to sort/reset them or start anew on another domain (maybe Wordpress) I just wanted to get this post as soon as possible and opted a more casual tone, hence the formatting. Also, my blogging and writing has become pretty rusty, as I have not been doing any writing outside of Yugioh.
My Facebook and Twitter are revived again, so feel free to say hi there.
I have to revive Dueling "C" Facebook Page too.

Happy New Year 2018

As the year comes to a close I would like to once again thank every reader of the blog for your continued support of Dueling "C" for 2017.

Meme of the year

I admit that the blog updates has been significantly less frequent, as responsibilities of life has caught up to us. Personally, I have moved into my College Dorm, and with Dorm comes Club Activities which had kept me busy and unable to attend weekly rankings.

Playing less gave me lesser chance to explore hidden concepts on the game which can be written upon, and also less motivation to scout for tech cards. I am also a fan of a 'Multiple-deck format' rather than a 'Single-deck dominated format'.
The previous most enjoyable format I could recall was the Metalfoes-BlueEyes-ABC format. Made siding a lot easier.

To this day, the LINK mechanics has kept me with mixed feelings. I have been looking back at the older days of the game for a few weeks now. Being a fan of the Tag Force PSP game series, I went to replay them. Perhaps it is the nostalgia factor, but the past always seem like a comfortable place to run back to.
Hopefully, the "LINKs are too broken/LINKs too OP" argument won't be too exaggerated.

I am also not liking the fact that Spell/Trap removal options are so rampant now, such that traps has lost their utility and place in decks. (I am a fan of traps. Although I haven't tried Paleozoics yet though.)

I am sure many know by now that I carry the unpopular opinion that Yugioh has too many cards and mechanics. But then again, I recognise that without anything new, it is hard for the game to move forward. However, pacing of the game development can be improved, in my opinion, although I am totally disregarding the 'Sales/Marketing' factor of the game when I analyse it that way.

Revisiting is always a plesant surprise, when long forgotten archetypes gets a new support. On the other hand of the spectrum, I hate how cards turn obselete and not even viable as time passes, although I suppose this is part and parcel of a card game.

Perhaps all these opinions would make for a better  

Moving forward, there are a few blog posts I can promise:

• Tourney Report for a new deck I have been working on. Hopefully I can find the time to play it
• Possibly another gimmicky deck I am working on (As one of my friend would call it, a "Side Project".
• Apparently [Opinions] articles, while controversial, seems to be a popular option. That and the 'Top 10' lists type of articles. The previous 'Top 10' post I recall writing was the Anime duels, which could use an update by now. 
• Someone suggested generic posts such as 'Top 10 Loved/Hated/Game-changing cards'. It can't hurt to try writing one of these posts.
• Recently I started rearranging my cards (Always saw no end to it. Somehow I still can't find the cards when I need to)
• My end game is to gather the more Sentimental-valuable cards I have in my stash and hopefully put them all in a nice potrait or album. I can forsee myself doing a story-telling of each of those cards from there on.

Speaking of which I really have to rebuild my decks (Buy the Link Monsters which I don't have) and catch up on the Anime. 

Finally, to my comrades at Dueling "C", thank you for not leaving and sticking with me on this voyage which has no promise of returns lol.

To BeyondTheDuel and Ygoprodeck colleagues, it has been a fun year and I hope next year will be even better.

I look forward to a new year and hope that the game would remain as interesting as ever.
-Ken Sir

MyPochi's Journey to AFASG 2017 (Team Flightless)

Hey guys MyPochi here bringing to you a tournament report of my performance at AFASG 2017 using Ritual Burning Abyss!

Here is my decklist for the event:

Side Deck Choices and Explanation
Before you BA Fans hit me with tonnes of hate, I did not play Nightmare Shark only because I do not have it at that time. So yeah, I replaced it with a second copy of Phantom Knight Breaksword.

Anyways moving on to the side deck choices......

Beatrice, Lady of Eternal
When playing ritual Burning Abyss, your main priority is to Djinn Lock and not to rush Beatrice. Thus, I never see myself summoning more than 2 Beatrice. I only add in the 3rd copy when I am siding out my ritual engine for a floodgate build.

Anti Spell Fragrance
I expected Magicians to be the dominating deck for this event thus I played Anti Spell Fragrance for Pendulum Hate.

Struggling Battle
Burning Abyss can have some trouble dealing with large boards especially since I do not play Dark Hole nor Lightning Vortex so Struggling Battle is used to help even out the playing field.

Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju
Best Kaiju for the Burning Abyss archetype. Deals with annoying minions swiftly, while providing an attack dummy for Beatrice to ram into.

Dimensional Barrier
Moar Pendulum Hate!!!

Droll & Lock Bird
After getting destroyed by this card in YOTSG 2017, I started to look up to Droll & Lock Bird due to its potential to stop a player's turn easily.

Alright with this out of the way, lets talk my tournament report of AFASG 2017!

Round 1 OO (Dino Yang Zing)

Game 1
Wow I was really surprised to see this deck not extinct yet! This build seemed to rush for Deng Long or Ultimate Conductor Tyranno in attempts to control the field. Skill Draining an Oviraptor caused my opponent to lose so much resources as I slowly snowballed to my victory.

Game 2
Long Overdued post
- MyPochi's tourney report

Intro to LINK Burning Abyss (Post Link Vrains Pack)

Its here!!! Its finally here!!! Burning Abyss received their support in a form of a Link Monster. Is this going to lead to a resurgence of the Burning Abyss? (Well...after SPYRAL hit the road)

In Link Vrains Pack, many archetypes received supports in a form of their Link Monsters. Burning Abyss was one of them. Introducing Cherubini, Black Angel of the Burning Abyss!!!