Yeah, that's why you might still see Vehicle in Water/Fire Aggro somewhere with Pally to get past blockers to keep the Rush going. Tho, I do see folks going Emeral instead to set down Surfer/other STs in that strategy and would run it that way myself. I had a poor one for Vehicle, just cuz I never much liked it or rushing, and I mentioned it for mono-Water deck focused on Lancer which = no hype, really. Yeah, my hip-hype-age skills are lacking at the moment. I shall trian! Muahaha. So, yeah, having that tagline for JP stuff you used was clearly betterz by far. Totally makes Vehicle sound awesome, lol. Do they do that a lot for the cards?

Well your GENERAL card analytical skills are excellent, cecillbill, so all is good. Although I can sing the graces of the worst of cards, you can PLAY the best with the worst of cards and that's the important thing. Not that I am unskilled (Forbos Survivors own!) of course, hehe. But if anyone wants to hear some more JP Quotes or wants me to analyze a card for fun... just ask.

Oh cecillbill you wanna challenge the grandmasta pimpzilla to a hip-hype battle?! You think you can see me? Well you can't, cause I'm many miles away. Pick your card, and we'll have a hype-off...yeah. Or not. Haha. Up to you. If anyone wants to feel my hype flows, gimme a card and watch me freestyle on it.

-Ryoma Echizen

Ryoma - if the P o j o magazine still existed, you would have been tapped for future set translation.
I think I got asked because the person needing to fill the slot is aware of me throught the Wizards Delegate program, and I got into that program in large part of my freelance articles on Pokemon in Beckett, InQuest, P o j o Magazine, and my interviews of members in the DCI Top 100 for Pokemon.
As much as I'd like every article to be Constructed Tourney calibre focused -- but some of the JDC promos will need to be written about with solely a Casual gameplay slant.

I think he should still do his set trans for Poj0 with the commentary. People will be glad that they had them on hand by the time those sets roll out. Hum...I wonder if Poj0 will do another DM book...

GordonKane, I feel that way about the cards when I write too. I want as much as possible to have Constructed competitive environment in mind, but I don't mind mentioning casual or limited stuff. In your case it's gonna be hard to do a Constructed slant for some of those cards.

Ryoma, I won't stand for you saying that you don't have mad skillz. Hehe. You duel online versus some players that I think are just tops like yodaz, and go toe to toe with them. What I love the most about players like you and GordonKane is that you guys will use underrated stuff, go after those rogue builds, and do great with them IRL or online. You guys influenced me to build rogue for my Invi. I greatly admire apsects about the JP and German meta for those same reasons. We have some great players in the US who take common builds and push them to the limits, or who have expanded my view on things, like yodaz and 4cc with Nature and the TX fellas innovating builds. BTW, our talks about Thrash & Chargers and the JP meta lead to this deck, hehe.

When did I say I didn't have mad skillz. Shiaat, I'm the world's champion in terms of skill. As for translations w/ commentary which sets were you thinking of, I can do 10-12 no prob, but 8-9 sorta is tricky, since Edo has already done them.

To GordonKane, I am well aware many cards have purely casual purposes (Omnistrain) and should be treated as such.
I am disappointed that another mag hasn't been put out. That would be nifty, for my set translations to be featured in such a form.

International Metagames can always provide an eye opener, and highlights strengths and weakness that weren't caught before. Full Defensor = possibilities.

-Ryoma Echizen

Lol you said feeling salty. Aww man I remember tht phrase, at games of kick ball after a home run...... Anywayz Nebula gets burned most of the time, and Merfolk is good its just not reliable enough to run 4 much anymore mainly because of heavy discard(around here S.hands mostly). Kind of a reason to play it but it just doesnt make it most of the time. Scarlet I havent seen tht card get much play. I would prefer Logic cube over Forbos. Only because i might need a burn spell or bounce spell early. Ive used Clone Factory to get back creatures etc. Umm the only really good under used card i can think of is Burst Shot. Can you explain to everyone why this is so great Ryoma?

Which card do you want me to analyze? I can analyze 1 card or 3-4. Just name em, but I'm not sure which of those cards your asking me to do.

Well I'm gonna get off. As for Burst Shot, it's a trigger and doesn't take one of your shields. Thus if you play 3k creatures you can kill your opponent's weenies. Primarily it's for the trigger to stop rush. Combine with Aqua Surfer to snuff out rush. Surfer is great because it can 2 rush creatures on the field (the other by attack, almost always there will be a Screwdriver/1k Speed Attacker/Braid Claw to kill.

It's combined with other STs to stop rush. Rush is best stopped by a combination of blockers AND STs. Only 1 of these elements does not stop a truly good rush deck.
As for the Japanese quote:

"Sweeps the field of all your own and opposing 2000 power or less weenie creatures. The fire civilization known for rush, also stops rush!"

Doesn't say anything so for progranda purposes. This is what you use to kill the rush deck, or a deck that uses a lot of comes into play effects like Hulcus, Corile, and BAT WITHOUT losing a shield like Searing Wave! Dare them to overcommit with a field of Emeral, Corile, and BAT and watch them SUFFER IN AGONY! BWHAHAHA!

Terahorn is pretty much the reason for Wave's popularity (as well as Sarius to a small extent). But Wave can kill the Cyber Lords Merfolk needs all the same, so give it a try! Just be wary of Propeller Mutant, which also Wave users will now be afraid of.

-Ryoma Echizen

Hmm where to start. Id like you to analyze: Scheming Hands being underated in my opnion mid game this card is evil!!, Magma rex(I dont care the stupid kooc's and mutants have to die lol, Why Flametropus is so frickin sweet and should be used in all mono fire, and Aqua Agent whats with tht card. You already explained y burst shot is good. So many ppl hate on tht card "But It'll destroy my monsters to:(" "SMACK! SMACK! SMAcK!" So what your destroying evo bait and weenies. Tht is pretty funny seeing ppl grins go to frowns as u unvail a shot. Their like omg im scrwd u can see it in their eyes.

Well people like to keep THEIR weenies. If you play weenies with effects generally Wave is better. Its true!

Scheming Hands is indeed very good, thing is if you opponent has only 1-2 cards its not very good. But it can help take away something Merfolk got. But if you think of it as Hopeless Vortex it helps. Pinpoint a threat and kill it!

Magma Rex is quite good against Emeral, Kooc, and BAT. Cecill runs one, so it must be good. I run one in my JP Survivors just cause he's cool. I'll definitely put them in the current build should rush prove to be a hassle, he fights Rush even better than Aqua Surfer!

Flametropus is Waveable. That's his problem, it is sad indeed. But with the new Chargers coming out, tropus's mana killing effect isn't so bad. He makes a nice mid-level play. 4 mana Double Breakers are rare.

Aqua Agent is good because everyone runs blue. Thus for 2k he is unblockable and invincible. It's pretty cool to be both unblockable and invincible at once, as no other card has it. When you have a field with blockers and a hand full of removal as many control decks are starting to resemble, Aqua Agent is what you don't want, a threat (even if it is tiny) that you can't get rid of.

None of the cards have really interesting captions... how dull.

-Ryoma Echizen

Well excuuuuse me for making the topic so dry. I just wanted you to say how those cards were pretty descent. Not really many cards I can think of .... Logic cube would be one. You can cast 2 for 1 Forbos, but i might be missing the point. You mentioned a Leviathan earlier in the thread. Will Legendary Bynor, Ponitas, etc pop their heads up to be a part of mono blue or decks with blue in them. The King /Coral Bynor strategy I always thought of as Blue Rush. Combined with aqua soldier, Hulcus, Veichle, paladin, and some bounce spells. Yah thtd be fun. Overall I think Blue is the best mono color. Ok one last question will their be more cards besides mutant and kooc to help rush in the future. This kid and his questions huh? This is aggravating you want to ask something and you forget owell my A.D.D kicked in.

By captions I just meant my JP guide book didn't anything interesting, not that the cards themselves weren't.

Logic Cube is good for getting Searing Wave, or any 4-5 mana spell. For a 6 mana spell usually its better to get it with Forbos. The problem is there haven't been a large amount of interesting 4-5 mana spells to get. One of the cool things is that Logic Cube can get creatures but Dimension Gate cannot get spells. You can use Logic Cube to get Dimension Gate, and then Dimension Gate to get your creature.

Leviathan's have been underwhelming. Bynor is interesting but Lancer is just simpler. Usually players only have 1 blocker on the field, seeing more blockers is rare. Thus a swarm can practically bypass a blocker anyway. Bynor suffers because he has more difficult evolution components and for the environment has a worse effect than Lancer.

Ponitas suffers from poor cost performance. While indeed you can retrieve something every turn, that makes it possible to achieve a lock, but its 8 mana for only 4000 power. Late game you don't want to be preparing to win, but to finish things.

The problem with Leviathans is that they are the water's big guns, but due to being water, they aren't allowed to be (physically) powerful and their effects tend to suffer. The lone exception is King Depthcon. This is still the best Leviathan. However if you are looking to be more original look at King Neptas. With it's power you can keep summoning and returning Corile, so that the opponent can never draw again!

Leviathan's as a race are currently impossible, due to the evolution just not working because people don't use blockers en masse. But many of the individual Leviathans are good. King Aquakamui might work really nice with the release of set 6's 4 mana Demon Commands. No doubt a control deck will seek to destroy them, but the King can perhaps surprise such a deck and gain Merfolk-ish advantage . Don't hesitate to ask about cards, I'll help you as I can. You can also PM me if you'd prefer.

-Ryoma Echizen

Ryoma are there any graveyard removal cards coming in the future? Seeing how we have cards to retrieve stuff from the graveyard how about removing stuff from the graveyard? (although is there a removed from the game zone in DM?) Also is there anymore retrieve from the graveyard cards coming in he future also? I know retrieving is not a big theme in DM but it would be nice to have options to deal with it if it becomes big.

Lately, due to the climate of my local store, Burst Shot has been a better play than Wave. Wave hits my mana zone a bit too much--that's recently tho. My decks normally do not let players build big weenie or swarm fields, so Shot off the trigger (I can set in in my 4cc with Nature) or as 6th drop has proven better for me than Wave. If I toast a shield it usually puts me on a very fast clock to win or hold down the fort b/c I play more Aggro-ish decks than anything right now. So, I split the counts, and sometimes run more Shot than Wave. My decks reflect the need to pound out Aggro decks b/c that's my meta--tho COntrol decks and Aggro-Control decks are what take tops at the tournies. Now, if I were playing in National event I would metagame versus Control which would ential switching up some kill choices, dropping a few blockers, and adding more hand discard & draw.

Aqua Agent is annoying b/c just about every good deck runs Water. Sure you can bounce it, but those darn stealth + return-to-hand effects makes it a recurring problem if you don't Snare it. It's not impossible to deal with, but annoying. Oddly enough, in the 4cc I played at my Invi Agent was one of the biggest annoyances, lol. Luckily I ran so much kill that whenever she dropped it I sent it to her hand--in hopes that a Loco could knock it out, but I always discarded other cards from her hand or she'd cast it before I could Lost Soul her hand. Still, it was the card she knew she had to play against me along with Scarlet and Corile. Otherwise she didn't have anything that could deal with my blockers for long other than Wave which didn't hit Senatine or Thrash or wasting kill to get rid of them and not my threats. Aqua Agent is a nice option for certain decks, and one of the coolest Stealth creatures. I think the other is the Fire Evo that has Water Stealth, and then maybe Kizar where you don't see much Paladin being played.

Leviathans...just too slow. Bynor has poor evo material. It's so much simplier to run Liquids that it's not even funny. Depthcon is best of their lot, but, yeah, hindered by extreme slowness = bounce & kill bait. I do like King Ripped-Hide, think it's decent (as in not completely horrible) and I have played him in 1st place decks post-Shadowclash running Nature where it was sometimes a turn 5 play for me. When I'm feeling goofy I play King Ripped-Hide.

A removed from game zone does not exist, nor does a card that lets the opponent effect his/her opponent's graveyard. (such as sending a card from grave to the opponent mana or shields). An RFG zone would create more confusion than anything and isn't really necessary.

There will be plenty of graveyard retreival in the future. Aside from the insane Dark Hidora (when a creature is summoned, you may retrieve a creature of the same race), Zombie Carnival (5 mana shield trigger that revives 3 cards of the selected race) and Devil's Medicine (Retrieve 2 creatures, 4 mana) Plenty of others that I have left out as well... excuse my laziness.

-Ryoma Echizen

Ah, all of those are gonna be sweet for my various future Control decks. :D