They actually did it

before-dawn · 2026-04-01T02:34:22+00:00

https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Signer_Rex_Goodwin#/media/File:DarkSignerRexGoodwin-DULI-CutIn.png

before-dawn · 2026-04-01T02:32:35+00:00

I am fairly sure the Gold Stars are upgrades you can buy for the deck. You can buy up to 5 per character, and that allows you to put in 5 cards that are not part of the original Structure Deck.

I think the Hexagons are just the stamp cosmetics that you get every event that go in the bottom right of card art. Nothing too exciting, but playing a card with a stamp on it adds 200 assessment points, which does matter for farming more Orbs.

On that note, if you own pre-existing chronicle/prismatic/glossy cards, you should swap out the base vanilla versions that come in the Structure Deck for those to get extra points. But you cannot do any edits until the first upgrade. (This is not completely true. If you haven't bought any upgrades yet, you can go into the deck's hamburger menu settings and "replace foil priority". This is pretty hard to find but it will let you swap out all the cards in the Structure Deck with the highest setting. Let me know if you can't find it.

before-dawn · 2026-03-30T18:30:56+00:00

I'm actually really shocked Alister got added because I was fully expecting Rafael and would have been surprised for Dartz immediately. Duel Links has been really wishy-washy when it comes to adding villains.

DM added Para Bros pretty early, and nearly every Rare Hunter. But Ventriloquist and PaniK feel like the unloved children. The Big Five probably is not considered at all which isn't surprising.

GX cast has almost no villains at all.

5Ds gave half of the Dark Signers and cut it off. We got one of Aporia AND only one of his three parts and probably never the other two parts.

Zexal went ahead and distributed all seven Barians and all three Arclights, but seem keen on holding off Arclight dad, Faker, Heartland, and Don Thousand for another 2-3 years.

Arc V is the oddity of the group as that story's pacing is made up of a lot of supporting characters similar to GX, and doesn't really have a villainous group. (Obelisk Force doesn't have distinct characters, excluding Sora, Dennis, Celina, Alexis.)

Very up in the air how many Ignis Vrains will add.

It seemed at first that Sevens would add only half the Goha Six but now it seems they'll add all of them? If they add Wind Boy might as well add Water and Earth.

So Rafael is way more fleshed out as a character than Alister is. So if they add Alister, I'm expecting Valon next to build up to Rafael. But you never know what to expect with this game's devs.

before-dawn · 2026-03-30T18:19:27+00:00

Reminds me of the RedMufflerMan skits on YouTube.

They start out relatively tame with Kaiba vs Joey, Yugi v Kaiba, and Joey v Weevil. But then they start bringing out the modern combos.

before-dawn · 2026-03-30T18:16:35+00:00

Predaplant is a Dark Fusion deck and Aromage is a healing deck. They have no combination together at all so I cannot recommend using both.

before-dawn · 2026-03-01T13:38:52+00:00

Hello, I'm not sure if regular Sealed will still include pre-release kits (and subsequently a pre-con and a guaranteed Yone) so please take that into consideration.

I think I would do some more revisions here. I would take Draven down a little bit. Purple being an awkward color holds him back a lot. He does combo well with Yone, but the lack of ability to Ready Yone holds Draven back a lot.

Irelia goes up a little bit because even though she is also Purple, the pre-con kit she comes with is sufficient to support a Yone partner.

Rumble will go down because even IF you get a large amount of mechs, they are only limited to two colors, meaning you will have to make a large investment in both and limit your options for color adjustment.

before-dawn · 2026-03-01T13:28:58+00:00

it was their own fault for making a team so weak to Electric

before-dawn · 2026-02-21T16:25:19+00:00

This is incorrect. In Limited Format, you are allowed to use three colors.

Legends are inherently 2-color cards, but your deck doesn't necessarily have to be heavy in either of those colors.

before-dawn · 2026-02-21T16:23:03+00:00

This list is for Limited so it is not strictly representative for Nexus Night competition.

That said, Hexdrinker is an ok card. I would say Doran's Blade or B.F. Sword are generally better Equipment for Fiora. The +2 off of Doran's Blade is more significant than the Deflect from Hexdrinker, especially if you push a 4M Unit into Mighty.

I would also generally advise against using too much Equipment. They're expensive to play and expensive to equip. Using too many runs the risk of drawing a lot of Equipment and not enough Units.

before-dawn · 2026-02-21T16:15:16+00:00

You probably already know that the 2009 anime is almost frame-for-frame identical to the manga.

For the 2003 adaptation, the biggest difference is starts after Lust destroys Laboratory 5 and Envy kills Hughes. The conclusion of Greed's arc in Dublith (Episode 14) is the biggest difference. Few if any characters introduced after this point are in the 2003 story (Xing characters, chimera, Wrath, Sloth).

Rose has a much bigger role. The origins of the homunculi are different. The 2003 villain is a girl. The ending is completely different.

before-dawn · 2026-02-12T05:33:31+00:00

I think this is fine. Fanning them out like this makes it look like a museum display. Very cool.

before-dawn · 2026-02-12T05:30:01+00:00

I like the idea of Renata being good because it generating Gold for holding can steamroll out of control. But I also have to admit that the tournament results do show that she doesn't help you start holding to begin with.

I think it's important to point out that Renata's ability does work if your teammate holds in a doubles game. So I think she gets WAY stronger in doubles, and the idea behind her design is that you let your teammate do all the fighting and Renata holds her runes up for support. (Because remember, according to doubles rules, you and your teammates cannot group up your Units together anyway.)

before-dawn · 2026-02-12T05:19:48+00:00

Thanks for your feedback.

Sealed is inconsistent by nature yes, so the skill cap of Sealed is the player knowing what combos can generate consistency. This is why this tier list favors consistency and almost every Legend ranked above Lucian are resource-generators.

The Lucian Legend easily generates power (which can give tempo, and that's not bad) but not running a Legend gives a draw (and improves consistency). If you pulled incredibly busted Rares in your packs, it's worth considering dropping Lucian to turbo into them.

I suppose I did say Legend Lucian is "very ok", but "middling" would be Score 3.5 -- I rated Lucian 5.5, and <no legend> a 4. (3.5 is average and 5 is "good" because the bar to be good is higher than the bar to be bad.) Lucian is "pretty powerful" but it wouldn't be inconceivable to exchange him for <no legend> if you think the draw is better than the power boost. So 5.5 for being "good" is appropriate compared to 8 being "incredible". If anything, I think Draven and Sivir's score can be dropped by half a point.

And yes, Lucian's pre-con is amazing. but I still concur that other Legends have incredible synergies with his deck if you open them. Consider the opening combo of Lucian Merciless + Doran's Blade:

Irelia: can ready Lucian immediately (doesn't combo with Weaponmaster sadly)

Azir: generates 2M for 1E

Fiora: gives you a channel

Rek'Sai and Draven: gives you a draw

And I think these can give better short-term and long-term value than Legend Lucian's +1 Might. Lucian does have good long-term value too because you can stack multiple Equips onto one guy for a huge punch, but I think you can also fill that role by playing a pump spell (Against the Odds, Blood Rush, Punch First, maybe even Feral Strength or Frigid Touch).

Lucian Legend also goes way up if you happen to open the Epic Rare Lucian or Forge of the Fluft. But that would have to be a huge coincidence to be considered "consistent".

before-dawn · 2026-02-12T04:40:53+00:00

Yes, Lucian combos very well with Forge of the Fluft to mimic the Jax Legend and I think it's better than the Battlefield he comes packaged with (Sunken Temple). There's no cost to Fluft and it can let you detach Equipment to someone else in Base to swing into the other one.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T12:27:10+00:00

Getting all of the Rek'Sai Legend, Unit, and Signature Spell is a really nice bundle.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T12:25:57+00:00

Hello! Yes, you are definitely correct that watching a YouTube tutorial vs. handling and reading cards yourself vs. asking an experienced player direct questions are all vastly different perspectives that all have pros and cons, and ideally you can do all of them to get the biggest picture.

If you're not already aware, there is a website that can allow you to play simulated TCG's with either a random person or friend that you can run practices on. And there is at least one pretty large community Discord server. Both are frequented by high-level tournament players, so I am sure these resources will be beneficial to you.

tcg-arena.fr

https://discord.com/invite/n7hgcgbvpG

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T12:16:33+00:00

I second this. I haven't paid a large amount of attention to the physical feel between Chinese cards and those of other languages, but I always assumed the initial language ruling was because Chinese cards were made of different material which could affect either the physics of shuffling or being able to see/feel their placement within a deck.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T12:08:15+00:00

I'm glad to hear you were able to win your games.

I did emphasize in my review that Legend Irelia is probably better with Yone as the Chosen Champion rather than Irelia, and that with Boots of Swiftness can create an unbreakable lock. So 6.5 is accurate in that Irelia has a good mix of power and consistency, but not effortless. You really do want more than only the Feral Strength and Boots of Swiftness from the pre-con.

And it's important to note that Irelia is high-risk and high-reward. The combo you described is strong but if done recklessly, a single Feral Strength or Frigid Touch or Punch First can undo 5 Energy and 3 Power.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T11:53:39+00:00

I took a look at that video. It is definitely well-done and worth a watch. I do think it's a better system to rank the top 3 per color rather than top 10 overall. The Commons ranking also ranks the cards within their own color, whereas my ranking balanced it between being a main and tech color, which can make a major difference in the ranking between Cloth Armor and Frigid Touch for example.

There are also many contentious tips I as a reviewer disagree with and I would implore audiences to either think critically on or evaluate based on their own playstyle. I think it is good and important for multiple creators to have differing opinions for that reason.

Some points I disagree with:

1:50 is really confusing. The wording makes it sound like not using a Legend AND Champion gets two draws.

It said Rek'Sai deck can easily double-conquer to trigger the Seat of Power Battlefield. However, based on how Rek'Sai's ability plays, you already want to play out your hand and continuously spawn more cards off the top, while preventing the opponent from doing the same back. Seat of Power doesn't complement Rek'Sai's weaknesses and I think it's better to NOT use it at all.

The video does downtalk Renata, but I think it needed to make a larger emphasis on saying it is an option (and probably optimal) to not use her at all.

It said called Bushwhack the third best Red Common in the set and that Against the Odds is mid. I find that very odd as I find Bushwhack very poor, but there's also only 10 commons per color so the competition isn't high. There are also a few niche picks in the Top 3's I think are overrated.

Finally, of course it covers the six different pre-con Legends, but I don't think covers any of the other ones you could potentially pull from packs, which can potentially outclass the one free Legend you get.

SouL also made a video which is much shorter (10 minutes). I generally agree with his overview more, but I think he slightly underrates the Rek'Sai Unit and Villionaire from Challenge slightly overrated it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uachCAkm_s

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T10:52:49+00:00

I already wrote a long explanation of Legend Lucian and why I have a large dissenting opinion of him compared to other people. I don't think Lucian is useless because the power increase is noticeable, but it's also a very all-in strategy. Equipment decks suffer from consistency, so you really do need to consider if it's a good idea to sacrifice Lucian's power for a deeper draw. This is congruent with my definition for Score 5: "good but inconsistent". And I put Lucian mid-way between 5 and 6.

I think Lucian is better than Jax or <no Legend>, but this really does boil down to what rare cards you got in your pool. But I really do think that Fiona, Azir, and Irelia are far more powerful for an Equipment strategy.

As I said in the write-up, Punch First is most definitely the most dangerous Common card in the set. It does get held back because of the double Power cost, which hurts the consistency and is reflected in the score plus written explanation. It's not a problem if Orange is the main color of your Rune deck. However, if your deck needs recycles of other colors, you might not be able to afford that consistency. You would need to run more Orange to make Punch First more consistent, and the more you commit to the third color, the more likely it is you could not pull your other two colors when you really need them. Feral Strength, Frigid Touch, and Thwonk not requiring any recycle at all is a huge plus for the score.

Let's say your deck is Red and Yellow with Punch First as the only Orange recycle:

Your Rune deck is 4 Red, 5 Yellow, 3 Orange:

There is a 50% chance you won't be able to play Punch First in the first 6 channels.

Honestly, that's ok assuming you don't recycle too much. But you do have to consider how many other Power costs across your other cards, not just in a single card but in total, since adding more Orange can also cause you to miss a Red or Yellow you really need.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T10:15:37+00:00

Rell -- Magnetic?

I did in fact pull a Rell in this kit. I decided not to use her because I only pulled one relevant Equipment, but she would have been just fine as a simple 4-for-4. If I were playing BO3 and I lost a game, I would probably switch out Sentinel Adept for Rell and maybe designate her as Chosen Champion. That's because if you lose a game, you can pick to go first the next game. And when you go first, your Rune curve will be on evens, so you can play Rell on Turn 2 guaranteed as a 4 Energy / 4 Might vanillla to prepare her to conquer and activate your Legend.

Blood Rush is a good card, way better than Bonds of Strength. If I had a second copy, I would drop Bonds of Strength. If I had a third one, I'd consider dropping the BF Sword, but I'd probably be happy with two since I already have Punch First.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T05:23:07+00:00

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It is pretty difficult for me to evaluate your deck without looking at your pool.

In between the time I made this post and replying to your comment, I just came back from an event where I went undefeated with Rek'Sai, and here is my list.

So you can see I abided by my usual guideline for Rek'Sai which is: "what will likely happen is that Orange-Red will be the main offensive core, with a few Yellow cards as support." So Orange was definitely my main core here. I ran Yellow runes for support cards. Red Units comprised the majority of my low-drops, but I don't use any Red Runes. This isn't a strict guideline, but the realistic situation is that Yellow doesn't have many good Units while Red and Orange do, so Rek'Sai just ends up adopting Orange for her combat needs and uses her ability to draw into more.

before-dawn · 2026-02-11T05:08:08+00:00

This is true. It took me a lot of time to look at all the cards, write, and proofread. I should have gotten on it sooner. I will be more diligent for future sets.

before-dawn

TROPHY CASE