Blog is Back!

First, I want to apologise for the lack of updates. By starting this up, it was with conviction of regular posts aimed at helping out other CCG members and to give interested viewers a taste of what we're offering. By not giving regular articles, I feel that I've let a lot of people down and I'm quite ashamed of it.

However, I am definitely back on track and determined to keep this thing alive with a lot of content and coverage, I owe you all that much at least. Look forward to it!

Deck Profile: Mezzo

In the build-up for our up-coming set, I've been tinkering with a few old decks and a couple of old faces for a strong Deck that would be able to compete with what will arrive in Deep-Sea Assault. Eventually, I settled on probably the most notorious Deck-Type in this fair CCG - Mezzos. The quintessential Synchro Summon Archetype, once feared for it's alarming consistency and its ability to put a host of powerhouse Synchro Monsters on the field in the blink of an eye. Since the Deck has suffered slightly in being hit by the ban-list, these Fairies fell out of favour, but with a bit of rejuvenation in the Decklist, could compete at the highest level once again.

3|Nasb|Mezzo Rogue

2|Nasb|Mezzo Chiptune

1|Nasb|Mezzo Galen

2|Flfs|Ghost Lanturn

2|Anv1|Goetia Conjuror

1|Rope|Vivian, Angel of the White Passage

2|Enil|Savior Soldier

2|Clpc|Nox Exploiter

1|Dirb|Eccentric Electron

3|Nwor|Swift Storm

3|Ww3|Vowing the Will

2|Dirb|Scrap Destruction

2|Flfs|Refueling

2|Dodm|Lifeforce Shield

2|Acrd|Depraved Extortion

1|Acrd|Quick-Chance

1|Anv1|Mitosis

1|Enil|Enchanting Circle

1|Dodm|Support Recharge

2|Anv1|Hostile Negotiation

2|Acrd|Twister of Rejection

1|Clpc|Gift from Diabolus

1|Enil|Twin Double Crossers

1|Acrd|Summoner Synchron

1|Dirb|Fiend Solider

1|Anv1|Shameful Artist

1|Flfs|Rumbler Tumbler

1|Dirb|Dark Swordlord

2|Nasb|Mezzo Beat

1|Dirb|Starshot Cannon

1|Enil|Fiend Magician

1|Ww3|Interdimensional Vortexlord

1|Res1|Rainbow Tail

1|Ww3|Ghora End Dragon

1|Flfs|Volcana the Dark Flame

1|Nwor|Meteor Force Dragon

1|Anv1|Monster of the Maelstrom

What I imagine is the first thing you'll notice is the small number of Traps run in this Deck, as I'm sure people are used to the line-up reaching double figures, especially in my case. However, space has been made by cutting out the more situational Traps, allowing me more space for tech choices, consistency cards and of course, a few hand Traps. That's not to say however that these Traps are an afterthought, Hostile Negotiation is my S/T negator of choice, Diabolus is a semi-Staple monster remover, Twister is a lovely and chainable Monster bouncer and Xyz/Synchro killer, while Twin Double Crossers is a personal tech I am experimenting with, which I will cover in more detail later.

Now, I suppose I ought to talk about the focus of the Deck. Quite simply, its goal is to summon huge Synchro monsters at breakneck speeds and pound your opponent into submission. With the rise and popularity of Xyz Monsters, this kind of Deck is declining, but you'd be a fool to discount the threat Mezzo Decks possess. Using the simple 6 card Mezzo engine, you have the ability to churn out the likes of Monster of the Maelstrom at no loss of card advantage. Yup. A simple Galen discard for Chiptune, Special Summon your Chiptune, pay 1000 to grab Rogue, Normal Summon Rogue and revive Galen. Level 9 Synchro hits the field and in the grand scheme, it cost you nothing. Failing that, any combination of just 2 Mezzo's can net you a Synchro, and if you can't reach Level 9, you can usually hit 6 and drop Mezzo Beat - the Archetype's boss monster. This Level 6 Generic Synchro monster swings for 2400 and has a plethora of effects that are triggered by banishing a card from your Grave, with perhaps the sweetest being the ability to banish cards from your opponents backrow by removing a Mezzo in your Grave.

Due to the listing of cards in the Mezzo engine, it leaves a lot of room in the monster department, which I have capitalized on by adding the Goetia engine. As covered by Leo before, Goetia Conjuror can Tribute a card, including itself, to Special Summon a Fiend from your Deck (provided it is the same Level as the Tributed Monster). This means Goetia can Tribute itself to Special Summon Ghost Lanturn. Now, Lanturn brings two important things to the table. The first is clear right off the bat, it's a Tuner that can Special Summon itself, which is also nice. However, its main use is its ability to bring Light Monsters, like your Mezzo's back to your hand, ready to refuel your combo's. This is the same reason Vivian is in the Deck, though she does have a very nice Summon block effect that can come in handy.

This is probably the most hand Trap heavy deck I've built in a long time, and this has been forced from necessity - as the TCG has evolved, so have we and we have a similar use and need for hand Traps against problem cards - Savior Soldier serves as an OTK blocker and beater, Electron stops opponents effects from getting out of hand and Nox Exploiter assists greatly in breaking up attacks and combos. As the Deck focuses on assembling combo pieces, it is important that they can be utilized safely, and the speed in which these Traps can protect you are of great significance.

As usual, there are various Staple to Semi-Staple cards which are run due to how effective they are, Scrap Destruction is fast chainable removal, Swift Storm deals with backrow quicker but less permanently to allow pushes to go through, and Extortion assists in taking down pesky self-protecting monsters. But in this Spell line-up are more than a few underused cards. Going down the list, we first have 3 copies of Vowing the Will. This is simple, the Deck lives and dies on how quickly it reaches Galen or Chiptune, and this will ensure that Chiptune reaches your hand (or Rogue, or if you need a hand Trap, Exploiter or Electron). This card aids the consistency that was lost when Galen was Limited, Chiptune was Semi'd and Ampule was banned. Next is Refueling and by association, Support Recharge - how effective is your Galen if its targets are in the Grave? These cards put Synchros and Mezzo's back into your Deck ready for another offensive push. We have Lifeforce Shield, which is a highly effective chainable protection card that replaces itself on use, and ensures that your Synchro's can carry on about their business, or make sure your opponent can't disrupt you midway through a play. Quick-Chance grants immediate access to a Level 1 Monster, which can be Electron or Lanturn for Synchro purposes, or Goetia to go into Lanturn. A useful tech card to have. There's also Mitosis, which bounces a monster to your hand to make Level 1 Tokens - this is simply for diversifying the Synchro monsters you can play but you can also combine this with cards like Twin Double Crossers. Enchanting Circle grants you the ability to take control of an opponents Monster, again this is handy for hitting different kinds of Synchro monsters. My teched Trap of choice, Twin Double Crossers is made live easily as the Deck can leave monsters about very often, which you can trade with your opponent. Even better, you could swap over a Nucleus Token and completely disrupt your opponent as they try to counter-attack.

Finally, the Extra Deck is built for variety. The deck has a lot more options than the basic engine would suggest and can adapt to so much through its Extra Deck options. The only card in multiples is Beat, as getting 2 on the field will wrap up a game for you very quickly due to its wide range of effects, not to mention the ease of which it can be Summoned.

Thanks for reading, and remember that with Mezzo's and Antennae's about, Synchro Decks are as strong as ever and more than ready to beat back any Xyz Monsters in their way.

LeoMence vs Ash (Single Duel)

This is a historic occasion for LCCG - our very first Duel Coverage Article! Our Duelists today were myself, piloting Plant Synchro, and LeoMence, who was using an Antennae Deck.

Leo wins the die roll and opts to start. He sets one card to each row and passes play over.

Ash sets one monster and two cards to his backrow and ends his turn.

Leo draws to 5 cards in-hand and activates Spell Search, discarding 1 card to add a Level 4 or lower Spellcaster to his hand, giving him his Antennae Inventor. He summons Inventor and activates its effect, adding a Machine Antennae to his hand - Antennae Preservationalist. He sets a card to his backrow and attacks Ash's face-down monster. Ash responds with Soul Spark Attack, attempting to destroy his monster and Leo's Inventor to get a draw, but Leo chains his Hostile Negotiation! Soul Spark fizzles without doing anything and Leo's Inventor smashes the set Nightglown Blossom.

Leo then flips up his face-down Keeper of the Arsenal and Overlays his monsters to Xyz Summon his RT-67 Gadgetron. This ends his turn.

Ash draws to 4 cards, and flips up his set Twister of Rejection, bouncing Gadgetron back to its Extra Deck. Next he Normal Summon Rilfsak and pokes away 1150 of Leo's Life Points, inflicting the first damage of the Duel. Ash follows this with a Set Spell/Trap and ends his turn.

Leo draws and sets a card to his backrow and Normal Summons Antennae Preservationalist, and then Special Summons Antennae Radar. Using Radars effect, he changes Preservationalist to Defense Position to destroy Ash's lone backrow, but the Scrap Destruction is chained! Ash gives up 1500 LP to try and destroy Antennae Preservationalist, but Leo continues the chain with Emergency Broadcast! His Trap returns Preservationalist safely to his hand and wipes out Rilfsak to boot, allowing Radar a free swipe, dropping Ash down to 5800 Life Points.

Ash draws and summons Iele, then uses Plant Attraction to add another from his deck to his hand! He sets a card to his backrow and Iele attacks over Radar to bring Leo down to 6550.

Leo draws to 3 cards in hand and 1 S/T set. He summons Antennae Preservationalist and attacks Iele, but Ash discards Iele from his hand to boost his other ones ATK by 1000! The Antennae falls and costs Leo a further 800 Life Points, but Leo revives his Antennae with Isis' Last Wish, also boosting Preservationalist's ATK to 1700. Leo then passes play to Ash.

Ash draws, and his only move for the turn is to switch his on-field Iele to Defence Position.

Leo sets a card to his backrow, and runs over Iele, though this triggers the effect of the other in the Grave, allowing it to return to Ash's hand. He then ends his turn.

Ash summons Verdant Dryad and attacks Antennae Preservationalist, discarding Iele to raise its ATK to 2400, but Leo responds with Soul Spark Attack destroying both Dryad and his Antenna, and then drawing because of it.

Leo draws for his turn, sets 2 cards to his backrow to join the other, and Summons another Antennae Preservationalist, which attacks safely to bring Ash down to 4600 LP.

Ash draws and activates his face-down Junk Salvage, paying 1000 LP to activate it. Leo chains Hostile Negotiation to try and negate it, but Ash discards another copy of Junk Salvage to see the original go through! Ash then returns his Nightglown Blossom and both Iele's to his hand via the effect of Junk Salvage.

Next, Ash Normal Summons Phoenixian Flytrap, and uses its effect to discard Blossom and destroy Antennae Preservationalist. Flytrap's direct attack goes on without a hitch, dropping Leo to 4750.

Leo activates a Junk Salvage of his own, going down to 3750 to return Radar, Inventor and Keeper of the Arsenal from his Graveyard to his hand. He Normal Summons the Inventor and uses its effect to bring an Antennae Preservationalist from his Deck to his hand, before ending his turn.

Ash draws and then Normal Summon Blooming Flower of Hope, a level 1 Tuner which gains 1 Level for each Plant in its owners Graveyard. He then used Flytrap's effect again, discarding Iele to destroy Leo's face-down Swift Storm. Blossom started at Level 5, and then used its effect, banishing Nightglown Blossom to Special Summon 1 "Flower Bud Token" which copied Blossoms' Level (1), also reducing Hope to Level 4 due to less Plants in the Grave. Ash then Tuned his 3 monsters to Synchro Summon the devastating Ghora End Dragon! Flytrap's secondary effect activated on hitting the Graveyard, returning the Banished Blossom to the Graveyard. Ghora End Dragon then attacked Antennae Inventor and destroyed it, reducing Leo's LP from 3750 to 2050. That concluded Ash's turn.

Leo simply drew and set a monster, before passing play back.

Ghora attacked and destroyed the set monster.

Leo Normal Summoned Antennae Preservationalist and ended.

Ghora End attacked, but Leo activated Emergency Broadcast to return his Antennae to hand and destroy Ghora, but the Synchro monster negated the effect by moving to Defence Position. During his Main Phase 2, Ash manually returned Ghora End Dragon to Attack Position before ending his turn.

Leo set 1 monster and ended his turn.

Ash drew and activated Amiable Bounty - by banishing 2 S/T's in his Graveyard (namely 2 Junk Salvage's) he could Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Plant from his Deck. He pulled out Verdant Dryad and used it's effect, discarding Hostile Negotiation from his hand to Special Summon Rilfsak from his Grave. He then Synchro Summoned Phoenixian Plant Fighter using Dryad and Rilfsak, and attacked the face-down monster with his Fighter. For good measure, he discarded Iele to boost it's ATK by 1000, letting his monster Pierce Keeper of the Arsenal 3400 to 1900, dealing 1500 damage and clearing the way for Ghora End Dragon to seal the victory!

Ash is forced to fight through a number of strong backrows and advantage gaining cards to eventually put his combo cards together and finish strongly with a pair of Synchro monsters!

Card of the Week: Sludge Demon

This weeks card is just one of the powerhouse monsters available to players that prefer to utilize Fusion monsters over the more mainstream Synchro's or Xyz monsters.

Dark/*******/Fiend/Fusion/Effect/ATK:2300/DEF:2100

1 FIRE monster + 1 DARK monster. When this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any Spell or Trap cards until the end of the Damage Step. When this card destroys a monster in Battle you can reduce the ATK of this card equal to half the ATK of the Destroyed monster to Special Summon that monster to your side of the field.

First, allow me to allay any fears you may have over any potential difficulty in actually Summoning the Demon, or any similar Multi-Attribute Fusion Monsters. Here in LCCG, we try to promote effective use of almost any kind of card you care to name, including Fusion Monsters. With a large amount of Fusion support, searchability, toolboxing and Fusion subs, it's never been so easy to compete with the oldest residents of your Extra Deck. For instance, if you were to run what I call Vanilla Fusion - a deck that relies heavily on use of Fusion Substitute monsters and Normal Monster support - you could Fusion Summon Sludge Demon using a variety of cards including Keeper of the Arsenal, Dharc Dark Corrupt, Hiita Fire Scorch, Ruby Chameleon or Scarlet Sibyl, not to mention that most of these are interchangeable and easy to use for other Fusions. Truly, Fusion monsters have the most flexible and toolbox focused Extra Deck around, and their Main Deck matches that fact superbly.


Sludge Demon itself is certainly no pushover, and it has a very rare but very effective benefit of closing down Spell/Traps while it is attacking. It is an effect that is seldom seen both in LCCG and the TCG, but there is no denying its usefulness. Your opponent wants to activate Flash Grenade? Tough luck. Perhaps they want to use Antennae Tune-Up? Nope. Psycrush? No chance. And that's only half of what Sludge Demon has in its arsenal - if it destroys a monster by battle, you can drop a few of your Demons ATK Points to Special Summon the monster it just ran over to your side of the field! This opens up so much to a Fusion Deck Duelist, as it will add a free monster that you can Fuse with almost any monster in your Deck. Since Sludge Demon has a decent ATK to begin with, it's very simple to bring it out and take a monster from your opponent that they've worked hard to put into play, and since your opponent can't respond to Sludge Demon's ATK with their backrow, they're almost powerless to stop you.


On to some combos now. You may or may not have realized, but Sludge Demon is the only Multi-Attribute Fusion Monster that requires a FIRE Attribute monster as part of its Summoning Conditions. It just so happens that a certain Chameleon that searches out Fusion cards (ie. Advanced Polymerization) is also a FIRE monster. So, you can discard your Ruby Chameleon to search out The Time and Space Chamber - you're two thirds through setting up Sludge Demon - any DARK monster in your Grave (or Fusion Substitution monster) will then allow you to bring Sludge Demon into play. 


Special mention must be made also for Sludge Demon's Level - it's just in the reach of Preparations of Fusions - so just by having Sludge Demon in your Extra Deck, you are free to re-use Ruby Chameleon AND your Fusion Spells. If you feel like it, you could bring in Fusion Cage. With this card, your Sludge Demon can not only shut out backrow when attacking, but also be fearless of any hand-traps your opponent might be packing, or pesky monsters your opponent may try and outplay you with. If you do try that route, you can use It's Raining Spells to tutor copies of Fusion Cage to your hand, and while you're at it, set up your Grave with Djinn's or specific Attribute monsters for use with The Time and Space Chamber. You could also use It's Raining Spells to bring Natural Resource Replenishing (for Fusion Spell recycling) or Ascending Spirit (for Fusion Material recycling) from your Deck to your hand. With Ascending Spirit, this can mean extra Ruby Chameleon use when you've fused for Sludge Demon.


Of course, if you choose to utilize Sludge Demon in a Djinn Fusion deck, there is definite ability to make this monster-stealer even more deadly - like using Prognosticator. Destroying a monster by battle not only forces it to switch sides, but also rips a card straight from your opponents hand. Using Releaser means that your opponent is stuck with weaker monsters as they are unable to Special Summon, meaning Sludge Demon has easy pickings. You could use Disserere to further consolidate protection from Traps. 


There really is so much support out there for Fusion Monsters, and Sludge Demon benefits from it all ten-fold. It's a fantastic card and in the large toolbox Fusion Duelists have, it's certainly one you wouldn't do without.

Pre-Reset History Part #1: The Reason

Many of you might not remember the pre-reset game and how it played out. We had some crazy decks, archetypes and cards. So for the LCCG blog, I am going to be doing a series talking about the pre-reset and how it went. Today, I am going to talk about why it reason and the format that caused it.

Personally, I called this Chaos Format. No, not because of a Chaos Deck ruining the game, because every deck was broken in its own way and it was a very annoying format. One deck came away as the most successful though; Starchaster. Starchaser was an archetype, originally submitted by Tomtekorv, which had previously flown under the radar when he left. A couple players had discovered the deck and began to abuse its power. The deck could easily drop lots of their monsters, and had quite a few cards that made them consistently a deadly force. Here is the LCCG Leaderboard deck layout:

Top Decks:

# - Name – Wins – Loses – Draws – Points

1.       Starchaster – 8 – 1 – 0 – 16

2.       Supreme – 7 – 5 – 0 – 14

3.       Aquean – 6 – 2 – 0 – 12

4.       Dark Shock – 4 – 5 – 0 – 8

5.       Alchemic – 3 – 3 – 0 – 6

6.       A Soldiers Glory – 3 – 2 – 1 – 7

7.       Insects – 2 – 0 – 0 – 4

8.       Spirit Oppression – 2 – 1 – 0 – 4

9.       Harmony Mech – 2 – 4 – 0 – 4

10.    FIRE – 1 – 2 – 0 – 2

The rest is pretty irrelevant, as those decks were not great/good in that format. So looking at this, you can see two more decks that were good; Supreme and Aquean. Supreme, being my creation, was a synchro spam archetype that focused on getting monsters from the Graveyard. It also had Supreme Declaration, which shut down your opponent’s special summons, which back than was extremely hard to remove back in the day, which ultimately saw it get edited and moved too one.

Aquean was another big threat back in the day. It was based on bouncing cards back to the deck and could quickly gain advantage over the opponent by doing this. With many cards that could get many Aqueans on the field and bounce the opponent’s cards, it was easily one of the best decks. This archetype was made by another former member, ZeroChill.

This will go down as one of the most hectic formats to every grace LCCG. With many decks that had consistent sacky plays, it was a format not many enjoyed playing at times. The top 3 worst formats (between ban-list changes) were pre-reset, which showed our lenience that we quickly fixed after resetting.

So what caused the reset is probably what we all want to know. Well, me and WereLord were on chat one day, discussing how broken the game had gotten and we came up with the idea to reset (leaving ENIL and FLFS as per Seattleite’s suggestion for a base core and because of Duel Arena progress). We reset the LCCG not to long after, and now we are here, playing, advancing further than last time and still having a good balanced gamestate.

That is part one of these series of articles, next up we will talk about the 2^nd worst format ever, and the deck that ruled the hell.

Deck Profile: Monster Mash

Monster Mash is a concept that was made in the TCG, and has been now adopted into LCCG. The deck runs 40 cards, all of which are monsters. Most variants of this deck in the TCG are Chaos, and the LCCG version of Monster Mash, is a Chaos build as well. So now that you know about the deck and a little bit of insight on what it will be about, here is the list followed by some explanations.

1|Acrd|Vainglorious Kimiara

3|Enil|Savior Soldier

3|Ww3|Deep Chaos Dragon

3|Anv1|Goetia Conjuror

2|Flfs|Ghost Lanturn

3|Dirb|Eccentric Electron

3|Clpc|Nox Exploiter

2|Clpc|Nox Deceiver

3|Anv1|Keeper of the Arsenal

3|Dirb|Lazer Bow

3|Nwor|Reaper- Doomcore

3|Dirb|Ancient Arthropod

2|Acrd|Chaos Dragon

2|Res1|Luminous Knight

2|Anv1|Preacher of Justice

1|Clpc|Flash Serpent

1|Anv1|Red Moon Rabisu

1|Ww3|Chaos End Dragon

2|Ww3|RT-67 Gadgetron

2|Anv1|Shameful Artist

1|Res1|Rainbow Tail

1|Anv1|Monster of the Maelstrom

2|Nasb|Mezzo Beat

1|Dirb|Fiend Solider

2|Flfs|Dragon of Life - Dawn

1|Dirb|Dark Swordlord

2|Flfs|Rumbler Tumbler

Side Deck

3|Anv1|Isis's Last Wish

2|Anv1|Mirror Wall

2|Dodm|Underworld Seal

2|Ww3|Eccentric Proton

2|Nasb|Interdimensional Treaty

2|Dirb|Scrap Destruction

2|Nasb|Splitting Cut

40 Monsters, 0 Spell/Trap Cards, 15 Extra Deck Cards, 15 Side Deck Cards

You play 7 “boss monsters” in the main deck, being your Vainglorious Kimiara and Deep Chaos Dragon, plus your hand trap Savior Soldier. Vainglorious Kimiara is a great card, as it can tutor the type, effect and attribute of a monster you removed from play. This can be very deadly late game if you have a Deep Chaos Dragon or Chaos Dragon, as you can start hitting their hand (Deep Chaos Dragon) or bouncing their field presence (Chaos Dragon). Deep Chaos Dragon is a very easy monster to get out in this deck, as your graveyard is usually full with LIGHT and DARK monsters. Both effects are very deadly as well. If you banish a LIGHT monster, you get to see a card in your opponent’s hand, with a chance at it being discarded. If you banish a DARK, you get a LIGHT monster that you banished earlier. The card is extremely good and is the main focus of the deck. Savior Soldier, being a hand trap, can provide some field presence in a time of need if your deck’s combos are going slowly.

Next you play the Goetia Conjurer and Ghost Lanturn engine. Goetia works like Keeper of the Arsenal in a way, but only targets Fiend-Type monsters. The tuner you could search for would be Ghost Lanturn if it tributes itself, which can be very useful. Nox Deceiver is also a card it can target, which can set a monster your opponent controls and than most likely, run it over. The engine is great as it can quickly search out tuners for Synchros, and outs to cards if they are needed.

Then there are the hand traps of the deck: Eccentric Electron and Nox Exploiter. We all know and love Electron, for its ability to negate monster effects, which is really important against some decks that abuse the effects of their monsters. Nox Exploiter works like Book of Moon, as it sets a monster face-down. This can be very effect against decks the synchro/xyz a lot, as it can stop there plays and leave them with an awkward field.

Keeper of the Arsenal is another important card to the deck. With its ability to turn cards into mini-Lonefire Blosssoms, it provides big problems for the opposing duellist. Lazer Bow is another amazing card that monster mash boasts. With its ability to go off 100% of the time, Synchros become a much easier feat to achieve in this deck. It can also be used with Keeper of the Arsenal to bring out another level 4 monster if you wanted to get an RT-67 Gadgetron.

Ancient Arthropod is the decks ‘niche’ card. Since you run no Spell cards in this deck, its effect always live. The discarding cards can be very pesky for your opponent as you might begin to make the discard the outs to your cards. Also, when you remove Red Moon Rabisu with Deep Chaos Dragon, he comes back during your next Standby Phase which can be pretty useful for the decks plays. Chaos Dragon also brings a Brionac like effect which bounces your opponent’s stuff and gets your cards like Reaper – Doomcore to the graveyard.

That is the main board. The Extra Deck is pretty standard. There is nothing really out of this world or different, only generic Synchros and Xyzs that you will see in most decks in this game.

In the side deck, you side into your spell and traps. Splitting Cut and Eccentric Proton counter the Fairy match-up, mainly their Space Clash Wave. Interdimensional Treaty and Scrap Destruction cover cards like Black Raven of the Grave that shut down your deck’s plays.  Underworld Seal shuts off your opponent’s graveyard, while keeping yours intact for your next turn. Mirror Wall negates traps for decks that abuse Transcending Curse cards and Isis’s Last Wish gives you a way to deal with big monsters if you are having trouble with them.

Another tip I need to stress is side out Ancient Arthropod. While he is a great ‘niche’ card, once you side in Spell Cards he becomes useless. This might sound redundant, but I feel like I need to mention it because it is important that you don’t run conflicting cards, unless the can co-exist (for example Royal Oppression in X-Sabers as you could flip it after you went off. It could be easily removed in case you needed to make other big plays. In this case, the spell cannot be removed from the graveyard to make Ancient Arthropod live again).

The deck is a lot of fun to play and use competitively. If you were to join a tournament with this deck, your side deck will be very important, because cards like Black Raven of the Grave can really hurt you. Don’t be afraid to side in Spell or Trap cards to counter those cards. I would recommend this deck to all of you to try out for yourselves.

Card of the Week: Infestation Dracomancer

The very first Card of the Week is going to be a card made by yours truly, and is by far one of my favourites, both in playability and in plain coolness.

Dark/****/Dragon/Atk:2000/Def:0

When this card is Normal Summoned; you can switch this card to Defense Position: Add 1 "Infestation Dracomancer" from your Deck to your hand.

Because who DOESN'T like Dragons? And Dracomancer is definitely one of the most combo-friendly ones around. When you put aside the mini self-Gadget effect or the potential to be a simple, yet thoroughly effective beatstick, it has a lot of good link-ups with almost everything around it. In it's own type, it has some huge bonuses - it is the only Level 4 or lower Dragon (hence Normal Summon-able) that can instantly be used to fit the Summoning requirements of Fafnir the Corrupt. Fafnir, at the cost of banishing a Dragon with 2000 or higher Atk, can Special Summon itself from the hand with a sizeable 2600 Atk body. Even better is that Fafnir can start eating cards from your opponents hand for a mere 1000 Life Points per turn. What makes Infestation Dracomancer so great in this, is that if you switched the original to Defense Position, you'll still have another in hand to make further use of!

Dracomancer also has a good friend in the form of Golden Wing Dragon. You can send a Golden Wing Dragon from your hand and a Dragon on your side of the field to the Graveyard to draw twice. A simple draw engine, but Dracomancer has some nifty perks that put it above other Dragons as draw fodder. The first is clear - the Dracomancer on field has probably brought another to your hand, allowing you to gain advantage from the combo rather than breaking even. However, perk number two can be quite upsetting for your opponent. The DARK Infestation Dracomancer and LIGHT Golden Wing Dragon means you have instant Chaos access. Deep Chaos Dragon is another Main Deck boss that most decks would give an arm and a leg to play, but Dracomancer goes a long way to making your Chaos boss live very quickly. Plus, if you have another DARK monster in your Grave, you can banish it to bring Golden Wing Dragon back from the beyond to your hand, ready to repeat the process again.

If you want to keep a steady stream of searching with Infestation Dracomancer, you could consider playing Cold Front Dragon. After playing your first copy and searching another, you can return the on-field Dracomancer to your Deck to Special Summon Cold Front Dragon from your hand, while ensuring that your in-hand Dracomancer has a target in Deck to bring back to your hand in your next turn. Or, if Cold Front Dragon hits the Graveyard and you draw into the returned Draco, you could always let Cold Front Special Summon your Draco, Normal Summon your in-hand copy, search Dracomancer No.3 and go straight for an Xyz Summon.

All-in-all, Infestation Dracomancer is a huge addition to a lot of Dragon decks. It's consistency, deck-thinning, beatdown and combo-friendly all in one package. Who doesn't love Dragons?

Deck Profile: Antennae

The first deck I'm going to cover is one of the strongest decks in the LCCG at the moment. Antennae's were first introduced in Flaming Forest by former member Bringerofcake. Since those days, the Spellcaster/Machine mix Archetype has received a few nice support cards that have helped to elevate them to the top.

After quite a long time of adding, chopping and eventually fine-tuning, I've come across my preferred and what I believe is the optimal version of the Deck.

3|Anv1|Keeper of the Arsenal

3|Flfs|Antennae Preservationalist

3|Flfs|Antennae Radar

2|Flfs|Antennae Fiddler

2|Acrd|Antennae Inventor

3|Acrd|Antennae Receiver

2|Enil|Spell Search

2|Enil|Junk Salvage

2|Nwor|Swift Storm

2|Acrd|Depraved Extortion

2|Nasb|Mass Manufacture

3|Anv1|Hostile Negotiation

3|Nwor|Antennae Tune-Up

3|Acrd|Emergency Broadcast

2|Rope|Soul Spark Attack

2|Anv1|Isis's Last Wish

1|Clpc|Gift from Diabolus

1|Ww3|Axe-Arm Mantis

1|Ww3|RT-67 Gadgetron

1|Rope|Deepsea Atlanthal Guide

2|Flfs|Rumbler Tumbler

1|Anv1|Shameful Artist

1|Dirb|Starshot Cannon

1|Nasb|Mezzo Beat

2|Flfs|Antennae Repairman

1|Res1|Rainbow Tail

1|Dirb|Ceathmas

1|Ww3|Ghora End Dragon

1|Nwor|Meteor Force Dragon

1|Anv1|Monster of the Maelstrom

Probably the first thing you'll notice is the low monster count, however Antennae Tune-Up can help bring Antennae's to the field at a moments notice, Keeper of the Arsenal can turn other monsters into a mini Lonefire Blossom, and Antennae Inventor can bring a Machine Antennae from your Deck to your hand. Add into that Spell Search, which can bring a Spellcaster (like Inventor) from your Deck or Grave to your hand, and you have quite a few ways to bring some consistency into the Deck.

Of your monsters, Preservationalist is your main combo starter, and when paired with Inventor, can make some big Synchro plays, such as dropping Level 9's to the field low investment. It should be noted though, that so long as Preservationalist hits the field safely, he can link up with any other Antennae (bar a copy of himself). If you have at least 2 different Antennae's in your hand, you can usually link them up - such as Fiddler + Radar for a Level 5 + S/T popped; Inventor + Radar for a search + S/T popped; Pres + Radar for Level 5 + S/T popped; Pres + Inventor for a search, which could be a Radar for a big Lv 9 play with the ability to hit a backrow too!

A lot of support comes from your S/T's, the likes of Antennae Receiver, Mass Manufacture, E-Broadcast and Tune-Up are invaluable for a host of Synchro plays and control options. Mass Manufacture is great for linking up with Radar and Preservationalist, and can even turn a lone Preservationalist into formidable Level 6 Synchro monster. You can even use the Factory Tokens for Soul Spark Attack or turn lv 2 Tokens into Tuners with Antennae Fiddler.

Junk Salvage is huge here, as it helps to replenish your options - All of your Antennae's (with the exception of Preservationalist) have -1000 ATK, so you can easily stock your hand full of Antennae's ready to Synchro all over again. Another use is to keep filling your hand with Antennae's as fodder for Antennae Repairman to keep swarming the field.

Radar is a fantastic card here, the ability to Special Summon itself and hit an opponents backrow is a great thing to have, but it really comes to life with Emergency Broadcast. By getting out Radar and using it's effect, then following up with E-Broadcast, you could decimate your opponent by up to 4 cards with a 1 card investment.

You may notice the addition of Xyz's in the Extra Deck and be confused, due to the Synchro-heavy nature of the deck, and in a sense you're right, but the potential is there for their use, and dropping Gadgetron along with a Synchro + backrow can seal a game. As for Synchros themselves, Antennae's get to make use of Ceathmas, which has inbuilt protection and the ability to retrieve Machines from the yard. As well as him, Antennae Repairman is the Archetype's boss Synchro, and has more than enough potential to flood the field with Synch's, meaning he should never be underestimated.

This is a deck I've really enjoyed playing for a long time, and with a flexible take on swarm, control and searching, it has everything you need to win out against even the toughest decks.

Welcome to the Blog v2

I've been wanting to do something like this for an incredibly long time, and with what should be a regular readership, hopefully this thing will take off. I'll be linking this thing up to my YCM siggy, which may just attract a few extra members, as it will provide new guys a look in to what a lot of decks do, combos to use, metagame and match-ups.

There will be Deck Profiles, Card of the Day/Week, Deck Doctor segments (link or comment with a Deck you want fixing up), Tournament Coverage, Duel/Tournament Reports, Set comments as well as my general opinion on a host of LCCG-related matters. I will start off a little later with a Deck Profile and from there, anything goes.

Enjoy, and with luck, I'll enjoy writing it all for you too.

-Is the copy-paste of what I had down on the original version I started only a few hours ago, but having quickly become disappointed with the lack of options associated with where it was hosted, quickly relocated here. Nonetheless, I will be back in the swing of things straight away, with a Deck Profile following this post.