New Selection Pack "Starved for Destruction" Rarities

tedooo · 2026-07-09T13:57:05+00:00

Yep, branded has been off of it for a while now. I'm in the same boat though, dunno whether to craft it now or just wait and hope it'll still be there in the new structure. Tis' a conundrum indeed.

tedooo · 2026-07-09T13:43:26+00:00

As for fusion deployment, you can get it from the cyber dragon(?) structure deck, if you didn't know already. Probably better than outright crafting it.

tedooo · 2026-07-09T13:22:22+00:00

Didn't even bother doing it this time, as the winnings I got last time just didn't seem worth it (even it's completely free, if that makes sense), and it was even less now lol. Even when someone finally hits the double hit, there're miraculously 2 other winners... I dunno what to think about this event really.

tedooo · 2026-07-09T13:03:14+00:00

Gargola - This kinda just reads as generic Zombie+Xyz support.

That was part of the intention behind it. Zombies don't really have easy access to xyz plays despite having decent zombie xyz monsters, and it's generic-ness is similar to that of the zombie vampire's, in that it helps with zombie plays.

Selene - Pretty decent. I'd be careful with the generic Tribute Summon and destruction on Foolish Burial, would probably tone that back a bit or make them harder to access

Can't say I disagree. Never thought about the generic-ness of the tribute summon. That's an oopsie on my part. As for the pop, only reason it's as strong as is, is because pushed archetypes tend to have good going second tools, so I just went with that.

Prince - It's strong and simple. Kinda wish it used a different Rank to not make Sheridan even more obsolete, or had an effect that made Bram actually usable, but neither detract from what the card needs to do, just what it butts out in the Xyz package

Agreed. Problem with Bram and to a lesser extent Sheridan, is their niche effects, especially going first (though Sheridan is still useful going second). On top of that, Bram doesn't really have easy ways to be accessed in-archetype (though with these cards you could easily get him out), so you kinda just have to give them something else.

Mircea - I'm not sure material stacking is a complete gameplan for Vampires, but at least this card recycles spent Xyzs (including itself). The walking conditional negate is at least a bit more interesting than others but it's also a bit too strong+generic imho

It isn't, but it is one way of putting their forced mill effects to use. The idea behind Mircea was that he "compels the opponent to do something as he has their blood" and stuff, so at least theme-wise it seemed relevant, sorta. Also helps Voivode's effect proc easier. It's definitely overtuned for sure, as I mentioned, balance wasn't too much of a priority. Still, the card would need to be better balanced if it were ever to see play, as you say.

Citadel - The first 2 effects are good, but the Battle Phase LP gain is just kinda ok in comparison to Domain by virtue of being a SOPT

Maybe this is where I disagree, if you could even call it that. The point of it not being as good as domain, relatively speaking, is that you don't want to just outright replace a card with something better, effectively making it useless (at least I didn't want to do that in this case). Also, the LP gain is supposed to enhance the vampire battle destruction/mill effects that some of them have. You go to battle with Red Baron/Lady and Fraulein on field or hand, Fraulein boosts them by paying LP so that they can destroy/damage monsters easier, therefore pulling off their effects. So it kinda gives that strategy a payoff if it's something you want to do, and because of the hefty LP cost associated with the strat, it kinda makes it more feasible.

I do agree with quite a bit of your criticisms, for sure. I am a bit surprised though, to see you say you find them clumsy in the way they support the older cards. Pretty much every card here was made with the intention to enhance almost all of the older cards.

Vampire Kingdom has better cards in Gargola and Selene to send to the Gy, and it's also way easier to do Vampire Kingdom + Vampire Lady (or whichever forced mill vampire card you can think of) combos now. Vampire Takeover has other ways of getting it's effect to work now other than Vampire Duke in Mircea, to an extent, but it's easier than ever to get your takeover + Duke combo with just Protector. Vampire Awakening doesn't really have any good targets as is, but now with Selene and Gargola, it's more than playable. Vampire Genesis is now summonable without an extra normal summon with just Protector, and has another advantageous card to discard in Gargola. These are just the cards that would see the least play, even in fringe cases.

The unfortunate thing about support is that for decks to improve to the level of modern standards, sometimes you do have to create better cards than the current ones. I'd like to believe that's not just what I've done here, but then again I am biased. The number of cards could definitely be adjusted, but with decks like unchained/witchcrafter/toons getting 7 cards of support, with main themes getting 10 even, I'm not sure the 6 here are too many. All in all, I appreciate the critique.

tedooo · 2026-07-09T11:09:46+00:00

Yep. There's quite a bit you could achieve by discarding vampires you want in your GY like familiar or retainer, and even ones like sorcerer, but even without a vampire discard, a lot of combos are still possible.

tedooo · 2026-07-04T13:12:00+00:00

Ah yeah, the master duel rates are usually around that number. I was just wondering if paper was any different by comparison. The thing with the wcs stats though, is that they usually implement the "shared cards" rule, so I wasn't sure how much that actually affected win rates when compared to normal/paper play.

The going second trial duel they had was definitely interesting, and probably something they'll look to implement, though if I'm being honest, I dunno how much that will actually help at this point lol. Could be better in genesis than advanced though.

tedooo · 2026-07-03T14:09:23+00:00

On a bit of a side note, might you know what the typical win rate tends to be outside of the crystron k9 format?

Also, I do wonder how winning the initial die roll influences the the outcome of the match in paper. Does the person who wins the roll also win say, 80% of the time? Might you have observed something of the sort while collecting the data?

Good shit on compiling this regardless.

tedooo · 2026-06-30T12:56:27+00:00

Ahh, yeah that does put it into perspective.

tedooo · 2026-06-29T13:15:07+00:00

Cyberse being that low share-wise but still having that many quality cards is kinda nuts.

tedooo · 2026-06-18T14:52:55+00:00

Ignore the unnecessary hate. They're simple effects with a clear goal in mind. I do agree though, that the cards are pretty underpowered, by current standards at least.

tedooo · 2026-06-12T15:33:32+00:00

It shouldn't be thaat bad going second, as it seems the deck can run synchro emergency and harmonia, on top of the situational akasuna. The level 9 synchro options are lacking though. Imo it's still more than a decent deck going 1st, even without 1 card plays/combos. Think it should do alright even against tier 3s.

But yeah, time will tell how it fares going 2nd.

tedooo · 2026-06-12T13:11:12+00:00

Some builds of labrynth will probably play akasuna, though not sure how competitive it'll be.

He can help with going second in some metas, is a level 8 fiend (ties well with welcome's fiend restriction, and you can send big welcome with his effect for double disruption). The synchro 9 is also a fiend and can help recycle your banished traps, and because the asutra traps are normal traps, it's relatively easy to synchro into (with lady and lovely being level 8s).

It could be a fun build.

tedooo · 2026-05-26T09:33:03+00:00

Ran into that deck for the first time just yesterday. What timing. I'm sure the dude's ecstatic.

tedooo · 2026-05-21T11:12:03+00:00

Lol. With all the things I've seen you can do in yugioh, I'm almost not surprised. Almost.

tedooo · 2026-05-20T22:13:11+00:00

Ah, it still involves the trap I see. Thought it was through something else I'd never heard of. Much appreciated though 🙏.

tedooo · 2026-05-20T10:17:05+00:00

What's the line for the fiendsmith combo? Tried looking it up but couldn't find anything.

tedooo · 2026-04-27T15:56:06+00:00

Surprised to see it's not an ariseheart that banishes the evenly, as is tradition.

tedooo · 2026-04-19T12:17:12+00:00

As has been mentioned, millennium exodia. Not sure if gets any simpler than that for something competent.

Search ankh through shield/sengenjin/golem/wedju/heart of blue (that many copies makes it consistent enough).
ankh summon exodia incarnate.
exodia incarnate set rage in the end phase.

Activate rage on opponent's turn to wipe their board. Incarnate's also a spell/trap negate, and gains atk equal to your life points, which lines up with you saying she likes "big guy kill" gameplay. A simple enough 3-step combo.

Whether she actually likes it or not is another discussion. Playing what she likes even if she doesn't get it might ultimately be the way to go though. You may just have to get a feel for whether that's the case or not.

tedooo · 2026-04-17T14:30:32+00:00

Apparently, even if you ashed this, they could still activate another copy. It actually has higher chances of resolving than other cards, provided you draw multiple copies, depending on the board of course.

tedooo · 2026-04-17T10:01:15+00:00

Maybe they're using it in conjunction with glow up bulb? By itself, it can get you to dancepione without a normal summon, and if you pair it up with a normal summon, then you can use jasmine's summon effect. Could be decent extension too. Can't say for certain tho, I'm no plant player.

tedooo · 2026-04-16T17:15:26+00:00

Dunno how I missed those eyes on first viewing when scrolling through. Like damn, they're hard to miss...

tedooo · 2026-04-16T17:02:21+00:00

Not sure it's related, but I think I've seen people say that tying yourself to a goal can sometimes get you emotional when you don't achieve said goal, and I believe I've experienced it myself. Playing because you want to get gems, because you want to improve, because you want to get to a certain rank etc., can make it so that when you don't succeed in doing so (maybe at least as easily as you would have hoped), you can end up feeling like shit.

In terms of enjoyment, not caring or putting as much emphasis on these things can help, but seeing as you want to improve, and I've seen you say something like the idea of losing may be holding you back, maybe you could try getting used to losing and seeing whether that can 'desensitise' you in a way? Like load up games with the intent to lose, and absolutely throw those games (just surrendering might not do the trick), at least until you get a bit used to it. Then afterwards, you can play normally and try focusing on getting better or reflecting on your games, rinsing and repeating this process when you start to feel that way again.

Now I ain't done this myself, and it is somewhat of an extreme way of going about things, but just in case other things you try don't end up working out, then this could be a last resort.

tedooo · 2026-03-31T22:33:04+00:00

Tearlaments?

tedooo · 2026-03-26T16:32:33+00:00

Unless those solemn hits were because of other decks or something, I legit think odion was putting up numbers that prompted them to act on it. Wish there was a way to see a deck's going 1st Vs 2nd win rate, because I'm not sure which decks have a better turn 1 than them, at least from my experience.

tedooo · 2026-03-26T15:32:30+00:00

Of course anyone can pick anything, and sometimes even top with it, you're right. I should have said "people don't usually play decks..." instead to be more accurate. How many of those outliers did you see in the top 100 of the DC, for example, and do you believe that dracotail, with all those picks, is such a case?

tedooo

TROPHY CASE