Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Profile: Spellbook Magilene

I have been back to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh for about 7 or 8 months. Initially I made a HEROES deck but I wanted to make a Spellcasters deck, especially with my favorite, Dark Magician. Fast forward to current time in which I decide to make another Spellbook deck.

 List:
Monster:
1x Priestess Junon
3x Spellbook Magician Batael
3x Madolche Magielene
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destoyer
2x Defender the Magical Warrior
2x Effect Veiler

Spells:
3x Secrets
2x Powers
2x Starhalls
2x Wisdoms
2x Life
2x Masters
2x Towers
1x Enternity
1x Fate
1x Book of Moon
1x Dark Hole

Traps:
2x Fiendish Chain
2x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Judgment
2x Starlight Road

Extra
2x Downred Magician
Gem Knight Pearl
2x Shining Elf
2x Nobleswarn Excition
2x Stardust Dragon
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Black Rose Dragon

The strategy:
The idea is to take advantage that Magielene searches herself from the deck and she gets recycled if destroyed by your opponent and using Starhall to buff my Spellcasters to unholy amounts of power. This is suppose to take a full advantage of Spellbooks' ability to recycle almost endlessly.
Kycoo is there simply he doubles as a beat stick and controls the grave quite well. People are saying that Bujinns will be a tier 1 deck next format, however most of their abilities comes from banishing their monsters from the grave meaning they will have to use a Crane to stop Kycoo's attack.
Defender is a great monster to have on the field since he can use the high amounts of Spell Counters to protect the others. At the cost of 2~5 Spell Counters, your Dark Hole could turn into a Raigeki.
Priestess is there since she will be popping things and is an alternative solution.
Like all Spellbooks, they tend to have almost no way to respond to OTKs. In fact, that's the reason why I decide to main Starlight Roads...to protect my cards.
The Black Rose Dragon may seem out of place, but due to Life manipulating the reborned monster's level, it's actually feasible to get her out. Typically in the early stages of the game, your only spellcaster tends to be Spellbook Magician. If I revive Effect Veiler by banishing him, she'll be a level 3 tuner and there are a lot of of level fours to do a Synchro Summoning 7.

Conclusion:
I am forgoing a little bit of the Spellbooks' famous consistency for UNLIMITED POWER! Once you get at least 2 functioning Starhalls going, this is essentially a high powered deck which can give Spellbooks some form of aggro.

Vanguard: Majesty Lord Blaster

For those who watch the anime, you will agree that episodes 63-65 were some of the best you have ever seen. The fight was personal something that Yu-Gi-Oh could stand to learn. In the last episode a miracle was formed and that miracle, which also happens to be my first deck ever is...

 CONT](VC):If you have a card named "Blaster Blade", and a card named "Blaster Dark" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000/[Critical]+1.
[AUTO](VC):[Choose a unit named "Blaster Blade", and a unit named "Blaster Dark" from your (RC), and put them into your soul] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of that battle.
This guy...he'll forever be my Avatar...until they get a re-trained version of him.

His effect is pretty much that you put the Royal Paladin Blaster Blade and the Shadow Paladin Blaster Dark from the field into the Soul for +10000, a permanent +2000, and extra crit. This gives MLB a fantastic mid-game pressure. Sure the opponent can Perfect Guard or Quintet Wall it f necessary, but they'll be expanding resources to block it. Best part...the opponent has to keep over-guarding, especially at 3 damage.

MLB, like my previous two posts, have pseudo-Archetypes. Unlike the previous two, the archetype part starts working at Grade 2. That is pretty good, especially if you need to rush like a mad man.

 Someone once said that Kay and Bedivere makes a picture. I say they're right.  I still need to confirm if Kay and Iseult are married.

MLB, as it stands, is the only unit that requires you to use other units from different clans (Royal and Shadows). Sadly most of the good support for a MLB deck consists of Royal Paladins so it's almost kinda moot.

Speaking of the deck, there's one thing that kinda harms it: most of the time your Grade 2 Blaster cards can end up being vanilla 9k beaters. Dark mainly because he can only retire if hes the VG and Blade because you want to conserve the CB on occasion.

Another thing to note is that Grade 2 space is incredibly tight. As a rule of thumb for a MLB deck, you want to max out Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark to use Wingal Brave's effect off and for MLB. Then you want to make space for Starcall Trumpeter in case you need to search those Blaster units. You also have to make room for Bedivere since 12k beaters are great.

And then this guy:

If you are one of those people who use this a tech card (like me), space just got tighter.
Fortunately MLB gets access to generic support like Toypugal, KoK Alfred, and Marron. Now in an ideal game, your formation should look something like this (assuming you were about to put Blade and Dark into the Soul):

 

Looks good right? However this ideal set-up does not always happen. Most of the time, from my own experience, your field can end up looking like this:

"Whoa what happened?" Is probably what you're asking. This is what a field set up for MLB's effect can look like on a regular basis, at least with me. This is more astonishing when you take in account that I play on Cray Online, the system whose shuffling algorithm is consider to be better then Cardfight Area.

Now if you can get to use "Awakening of the Twin Blades" (my personal name for MLB's skill) by turn 3, or even 4, you're loooking at a solid 12k defense, hitting for 22k on the turn, and an extra critical with the likelihood of a Critical Trigger. Most people would either overguard it or waste a perfect guard.

However if you don't get either Blaster Blade or Dark out, then you're essentially stuck with a vanilla 10k Grade 3. At this point, you might as well play Stardrive Dragon.

Majesty Lord Blaster has another problem that most players are familiar with: he sucks up two units who can easily intercept. After a lost like that you HAVE to recover it somehow. That is why whenever you see a MLB deck, 9/10 times their trigger line up will be: 8C, 4D, and 4H. If not, then closer to that ratio. Ideally a MLB player wants to kill their opponent at 3 damage and would want to maximize their chances for critical triggers. However the very real chance of not pulling it off is very high.

As much as I like Majesty Lord Blaster I do admit that, while competitively viable, is losing ground. Especially once some of the newer Jewel Knights reach the West, most importantly, Ashley Reverse.

No master I didn't say anything bad about you! Please don't beat me!

 However no matter what happens, I will remain loyal to MLB

...Until Bushiroad makes a retrained version.

Vanguard Card: Blazing Lion Platina Ezel

Now for today's Vanguard card. I am sorry for the 30+ people who read my Dragonic Overlord thoughts nut Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies ate up my time. God Simon Blackquil was amazing as a prosecutor since he just counters everything and good old Apollo Justice gets amazing development he desperately needed and...huh? You want me to talk about Ezel? Oh okay...

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 5 (This ability is active if you have five or more damage):[Counter Blast (3)] Choose up to five of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards, and those units get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
[CONT](VC):If you have a card named "Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

I have a confession to make guys. I really didn't like Platina Ezel when he first showed up. It wasn't that he was bad...eventually. 

To give you an idea of why I think this is bad, I will have to make a confession: I was an active lurker and part-time user in the wiki. To give you an idea, they think that you shouldn't run 4 Perfect Guards. Take that as you will.

Still they DO made fair points about this card. First it costs 3 CB...Yeah that's not very cheap at all. It gets worst when you realize you won't be superior calling much since CB is going to be tight. That means the amount of Viviane's pressure is sorta lost.

It also does not help that this is an Ultimate Break, an ability that activates when you are at 5 damage. Yeah those are almost never fun.

The good news is that he's a cross ride of B.Ezel and that 13k body is always appreciated. Also, like our good friend Dragonic Overlord, he has access to a pseudo-Archetype which includes these guys:

  Tors and Bagdemagus are 10k and 12k beaters respectively so those two can actually do hit some stuff so long as an Ezel unit is the VG and P.Ezel decks tends to have their G3s as Ezels only.

It also helps that P.Ezel has access to a pretty good starter:

If you have Beaumains as VG and a Gareth in RG, you can actually star getting some pressure on. In fact, by turn 3, you can conceivably get to P.Ezel who might be a vanilla unit until 5 damage, but "DAT 13K MAHN!"

However a card that really helps P.Ezel once he's in stores is this:

BY SB 2 units, you can flip over 2CB. That is amazing because now Counter Blast will not be so tight as before. It's actually possible now to use Viviane's skill, B.Ezel's LB, and P.Ezel's UB...not necessarily in that order though.

If you do find yourself at the very late stages of the game, then this is the best to activate it. If your opponent's hand has been drained, this makes it even better. I mean, that's a lot of power you got there going on.

Now I imagine the deck likes to run 5 or 6 Draw Triggers since they need to plus somehow. It's not too far out of the way that the deck has to plus. I admit Critical Triggers are important, but due to the restrictiveness of CB, and thus less Superior Calls, I believe Draws are very important.

On the bright side, at least there isn't a card that can become a high variable amount of shield power...

God dammit, why do you do this to Ezel Bushiroad?

Vanguard: Drragonic Overlord

In the beginning, before there were Break Rides, before there were Limit Breaks, before the idea of Cross-Rides...it all started with two Trial Decks.One contains Blaster Blade, a Royal Paladin who can conceivably be toolbox into any RP deck. Then we have this Flame Dragon

 

[CONT] (VC/RC): If you do not have another <<Kagero>> vanguard or rearguard, this unit gets [Power] -2000

[ACT](VC/RC): [COunter Blast (3)] Until the end of turn, this units get [Power] +5000 , gets "[AUTO](VC/RC): When this unit's attack hits an opponent's rear-guard, [Stand] this unit", and it loses "Twin Drive!!".

This was the Kagero's very first boss.This guy is often consider to be Toshiki Kai's ace card. Eventually he will get a cross-ride in the form of,,,this:

However I am not here to talk about the popular The End. I am here to talk about the base form.

So where to start?
For starters, DO has the base power of 11000 which is pretty fantastic since that is the essential things to be a good Grade 3 VG in today's meta. If you also take in account of the clan's tendency to Retire units (namely Boosters) then it becomes harder to crack through while giving up minimum shielding.
Now for his skill...it's good, bad, good again, and questionable.

When DO uses his counter blast his Power raises to 16000. In Vanguard, that is consider to be the magic numbers to force 10k Shields vs. an 11k VG. To make matters worst for the opponent, DO will go after the rear-guard first so it can re-Stand, effectively making Dragonic Overlord the first Re-Standing Vanguard. It was conceivable to do at least 2 attacks with him since generally people don't want to guard the first attack.

There are issues with the ability however. First DO loses his Twin Drive!! which in turn means he lost a lot of his pressure. That means that the typical "2-to-pass" guards becomes "No pass".

There is good news though. DO's counter-blast can be use while he is a rear-guard as well. This is amazing ability for a rear-guard since he can theoretically be hitting all of your opponent's front line.

Assuming he did not get a trigger, DO along with a booster, will hate +20k...meaning the opponent has to sacrifice at least 15k worth of shields to save a 10000 power unit. If the booster unit was Bahr, then if DO attacks a 9k unit, the opponent needs to give up 20k in Shields. With the way the meta is going, the Grade 2 10000 vanillas will be replaced by 12k beaters whose base power is 9000.

Does that mean it is a good ability? In my opinion, yes it is, but there is an issue with the ability. It costs 3 counter-blast. That's a high cost to pay and it gets even worst when you think about what other card will want to use counter blast, namely these two:

Those two were the ones that come  to mind.
Now is the counter blast bad? Kinda...the problem is that there are Kagero cards that utilize CB such as Kinmara. It IS a nice option to have which is something I really like. The thing is that you have to consider if it is worth the 3 CB.

My thoughts: When DO is your VG, he might as well be vanilla because rarely will people ever use his CB. If you can pull it off in a timely manner, then there is a good chance your opponent can not survive. Still DO is good if you want to play defensively.It also helps that DO is part of a pseudo archetype meaning he has access to a 12k beater so that is definitely something to work with. According to some of my fellow Vanguard friends, Kagero tends to run a lot of vanillas since they have a hard time getting good numbers and having access to 12k beaters give DO an edge in other decks.

Of course DO, like Kai, will slowly but surely get power creeped to death. Watch as they introduce 12k base Vanguards.

Wait they...they already did. Though this is buns though.

Hello internet!

I am the medic ninja otherwise known to some as Phantom High. You can call me Phantom.
This blog is use for the purpose of my ramblings and stuff for various things, such as video games, anime, movie, and trading card games.
...I have the sneaking suspicion it will be about card games though...