At one point I could have sworn I gave up YGO, but it never really stops itching, once in a blue moon I couldn't help myself checking up on things around the game. never until recently figured I might try a hand at playing again. I was always sort of a collector/player and my current situation certainly doesn't permit collecting much anymore (last June my gf of 5 years left me after cheating on me for over a month, we were engaged for a year and have two children - so basically i'm stuck with no savings, high rent on the house and high energy costs that come with it, some debts she left me with and joint custody of my kids) so I debated a long time whether simply playing with a limited number of decks could really work for me. I think I finally convinced myself in another very narrow format (three main decks from what I can tell) I can probably take a shine to a well-teched Blackwing deck, considering I booked my biggest successes in 10 months using a Samurai deck. now well over two years ago.

i've never been an awesome player, if some of you remember my one and only talent was deckbuilding based on anticipating matchups and using whatever tech needed from the blatantly obvious to the ridiculously obscure.

so if I want to give this a chance I need some insights to find good tech. From what I can tell I need to go up against zombie/destiny, Sworn and other BW decks. So what is popular tech, but more importantly, what are key things to watch in these decks so that i can figure out some more original tech. I started the whole creature swap fad back when sworn became hot, obviously I'll be playing two copies against Kalut and Honest. I also pertinently refuse (as usual) any cards that can backfire, so it definitely WILL NOT be an oppression deck.

Any and all help very much appreciated.

One particular question I had was why Book of moon has been so popular of late ? last time I saw it being this hot was when glads were around, but its seeing so much main deck play and haven't been around enough to see why exactly ...

Book of Moon is excellent mainly because it can stop your opponent from synchro summoning by booking their tuner, it can give your Blackwing Synchros their effect if brought out by Vayu, blackwings also have a lot of piercing so flipping an opposing threat into defense position helps the deck a lot, it can also save you from Bottomless which is heavily played at the moment and Brain Control as well. Basically it's and all around good card.

its nice to see an old realmer come back to the realms. Sorry about your relationship though (that must increadibly suck :( ). As you can see, the realms got a bit of a face/lift and is in tip-top shape.

a big weakness of most decks these days is grave dependance, so you can always tech against that (like dimension fissure or D.D. Crow). Most decks also special summon and swarm heavily so things like lightning vortex can help with that. Dark Simorgh recently came out, so if you can get it one it would be fun to play around with. There is also things like Swallow's Nest as well. Just try them out and get a feel for it.

Lets see...
Top deck now are Lightsworn, Zombies and Blackwings. There are two types of zombies, Recruiter zombies, and destiny zombies. Recruiter zombies otks much easier, while destiny zombies are more control based. If u ask me, Blackwings are tier 1,5. They are not as good as Ls/ Zombies.
In January 6th, Elemental Hero Absolute Zero will get released (In France he's allready out)

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Element..._Absolute_Zero

So, then there will be Absolute Zero decks, who will most likely make it to tier 1.

As for expected matchups, u live in Europe, so there will be a lot of Ls matchups. By January, u should expect a lot of absolute zero match ups too.

U probably know how ls work, so i wont say anything about that. Zombies want to open with a pyramid turtle/mystic tomato/ goblin zombie. they set it, end with goblin zombie on the field, since its tomato/turtle searchable, and next turn they drop Brionac

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Brionac...he_Ice_Barrier

, drop the mezuki they got through gz's effect, clear ur field, and otk u from there if they have burial from the dd or if u have lost some lp beforehand. Basically, its good if you dont attack the set monsters, in regionals i played a zombie mirror match vs a good players and we kept passing play without doing anything for more than 3 turns in a row.

About cool techs atm, My body as a shield is hot right now, zombies tend to tech 1 dust tornado, Caius is really good, Tragoedia/Gorz is good too. Many people side Nobleman of Crossout vs zombies. Trap hole is seeing play (sided vs Blackwings).

As to book of moon, it is good cuz u can book of moon Lumina and they dont mill in the endphase (therefore shutting down the ls engine), book a synchro material before they declare synchro summoning to stop the big dude from dropping the field, it is a removal card in the very least, cuz few monsters have big defense, so u can kill them in battle next turn. It also stops Black whirlwind searches, so basically, its good vs all matchups.

My advice is first of all, since u have a lot of stuff to pay, dont spend much on ygo, especially since in March we have a new banlist. Wouldt it suck to build a full deck for like, 100 euros, then get crippled by the banlist? I would say build something casual with little or no money, get the stuff in your life together, and in the meanwhile get informed about whats going on in the game. By March u should know what u would want to run.

Is anyone expecting huge updates to the banlist ? Especially to hurt what you just called a tier 1.5 deck ? It already got its fair shake with the limiting of Gale I think, and the banning of that one synchro monster. The fact that is Tier 1.5 doesn't really hurt me, i played samurai when there was nothing but DAD/Sworn around and won out. Mostly because they fit my playstyle (a fast aggro deck with good tech) which BW does as well. It needs minimal support other than 3 Black whirlwind (I know that most people will say you need allure and icarus as well, but in my opinion that depends a lot on what I end up running).

Sad to hear that recruiters are back, since that means i need to get some playtime in to see if I main creature swap or not. But in the end recruiters are an age-old strategy, we've dealt with it before, its only a matter of getting back to basics, and playing the removal. In that regard Shield crush is likely a better tactic than nobleman, the deck doesn't play any multiples of flips does it ? I would not have imagined recruiters coming back with everyone playing at least one copy of red dragon archfiend and the like. The one problem i see with this deck is that it requires completely different tech (swap and book don't seem to benefit me much in this matchup) which leaves me with choices to make. So here's to hoping gaia is right that i'll face sworn the most.

Sworn shouldn't be a huge problem, I had their number before with a samurai deck, i'm sure it should be even easier to take down with blackwings. Its also an aggressive strategy, which is easy to read for me, and i tech well around the pitfalls (thanks to both you guys for explaining book to me, it does seem like a key element) of that particular matchup.

Can't quite get a read on that other zombie deck though, with the destiny hero's, need to see it in action some more to see how that really works out, what the key plays are. In any case, it also seems to be somewhat about swarming action and I already guessed that's where most of my tech should be focused on.

Out of the tech you listed, gaia, I had already considered MBaaS, the others don't really seem to fit a blackwing deck all that well. There has to be more suitable removal than caius for that deck. But I was already leaning heavily toward spells, both in regards to speed and in regards to Sworn siding into decree (they still do that no ?). I got a feeling I might be going against the grain with that, but call it a gut feeling based on experience that its the better way to go. Or at least consider a standard 4-5 card side-out traps for spells for game 2.

I'm not going to be playing oppression, as I said, i've never been that good with cards that only conditionally help me. I can usually find more obscure tech that is more limited in scope but is 100% in my favour. But speaking of, how good is trap eater still as a side card ? What are other standard side-deck musts (I say standard because in a lot of cases tech and strategy allow me to drop some)

teching against grave play is hurting me conditionally as well, just like oppression. I love to play cards like necrovalley, but with vayu and what not, and the need to special summon, i don't see much way around that. Other than a single DD crow and a pair of sided burials from the DD I might not play to the opposing graveyard at all unless I find something of real interest. Especiall if others are playing burial, it makes overly teching the yard other than with necrovalley a little futile.

That E-hero card is sick. Especially since its a single card investment if you play a little mill, lot of good cards that fit in there. Normally I would play to stop the summon with forced back or oppression, but that's a far fetch here, between ocean, stratos, R-righteous and the standard cards those cards don't hold up well, and those are cards that are costly to stop a single card investment. That will take some pondering.

Well, you know how the banlists are, they almost never do the obvious things, the things we'veall been waiting for, so im just saying, done invest a lot of money in a deck you dont know for sure if its staying for long, unless you have money to risk.. and icarus/allure is easy to find, since allure is super promo from a special edition and all, so i wouldnt sweat about that. Talk to some friends, and they will probably have playsets to give away for free.

Well, shield crush< Nobleman, for the reason that nobleman removes the monster. If u shield crush Goblin zombie, they get to do its effect, and have it in the grave, to sp summon later on and swarm (it all starts from Goblin Zombie), so Nobleman is better from those 2 by far, believe me. Red Dragon Archfiend barely sees the field, cuz Ls and Blackwings cannot drop an 8 star synchro easily, and Zombies have a 6 star synchro (plague + zombie non tuner) that kills recruiters. And its one copy, red dragon arcfiend can easily get bottomlesses, MF'd etc.. And I play in Europe too, if u remember (if u were playing actually, idk), Tele dad format, which was a one man show back then, UK national finals was an ls mirror match.. That alone says a lot about how much ls is being played in Europe. In europeans 2009, more than 33 % played Ls, as opposed to around 25 % blackwing, around 13 % Synchro Cat, and so on.. When Ls wasnt even the best deck.. I still face a lot of Ls matches.

Well, you are correct, it swarms too, but it is not otk based, its more of a control deck than r zombies, recruiter zombies otk much, much easier.

Mbaas will be very good after Zero comes out too.. And yeah, the techs i mentioned is the stuff that are played today in deck generally, not exclusively in bw decks, so a lot of stuff will probably dont fit in your deck, but by seeing what people play to face other match ups should give u a rough draft about what cards are good. As for spells, idk, i have to think it and get back at you.. To be honest i havent played Blackwings all that much, so i need togive it some consideration.. D.D. Crow would be good, since its a winged beast and all, and it can do damage to both ls and zombies..

In my opinion, Oppression is one of the key reasons why Blackwing is in the top tables at the moment, but if you think it will hurt you dont play it..

Standard side deck musts are probably Kycoo, jujitsu, dust tornadoes.. Good thing with Blackwings is that u can side into Skil Drain, Oppression, Decree (not that easy as the first two but yeah).. So really, other than a few stuff that are a must, like s/t protection of some form, and Kycoos (who are good vs ls and zombies, Belido in recent regionals even went as far as maining one), i dont consider anything else as staple..


And yeah, Zero is realy good, i mean, i can go future fusion, dumping malicious and a water, then summoning malicious with a tuner for stardust, to protectil the future fusion, and 2 turns later, when zero comes out, l nuke your setup by tributing Zero for caius (zero does the effect destroying the monsters, plus, i remove one with caius), or i will activate Storm, nuking you off spell/ traps, plus, zero gets destroyed along with future fusion, so your monsters get destroyed too, leaving u with an empty field.. I cannot express in words how much of a beast Zero is.

Starlight Road is a very nice counter for Absolute Zero. Too bad it's not out in the TCG until after the next list, so the meta could completely shift for all we know.

As said, Graveyard reliance is bit. After ABPF is out, we could see a slight influx of Gravekeeper's Decks with Necrovalley to block out a bunch of Graveyard-looking things; perhaps even with The End of Anubis, Deck Devastation Virus, and such teched in. Heck, thanks to Gravekeeper's High Priest, they even have a very easy Tribute for EEV as well.

I wasn't talking about availability, I have icarus, can probably get a pair of ulti allures on the cheap with a little shopping around, just a remark as to what I deem necessary in the line-up as opposed to most players, i can see me cutting both if my deck takes me that way, don't really see there ever being a good reason not to play whirlwind though. And i've known banlists to do crazy things, because well Konami (and especially UDE in the past) don't really understand their own game very well, but there's always a vague reason. Overkill for top decks, changing things up or simply changing the landscape in favour of less skilled players (cause that's the only possible reason to limit Solemn). I don't immediately see any card being banned or limited that kills blackwings, other than another monster of theirs, with none of them really drawing much attention to itself. You're right that the risk of getting burned is always there, but odds are in my favour though.

Good point about Goblin zombie. And i know LS are played heavier here (I understand, it was a very heavy investment for most and its still competitive, so why not) but not to what extent really, I've been out of the game 18 months, been away from competitive scene for at least 9 now (gonna be hard for me not to be a collector and build new fun decktypes weekly, but hey, maybe it'll be less of an obsession this way as well).

I'll have to learn about it a bit to really get it I think.

In many cases MBaaS is already that good, since solemn was limited. Playing at least one DD crow, not a very versatile card, will stick to one as well if I don't play a full set of icarus (want to keep my trap count down to 1/6th my deck at the most) .

It certainly was for the two players that made top4 with it thusfar. But no doubt they are better players than me, and poorer deckbuilders ;)I have bad luck with those things too, and i've been known to forget options and limitations at key points in the game, hence probably best not to opt for that road.

Always loved Kycoo, and would certainly fit with what I have in mind, but given the heavy theming of the deck, I don't see a lot of room to work with other monsters without it being detrimental to the main strategy. But certainly good enough to consider making it work.

That's nothing, think of what happens when your water monster is Treeborn frog or you happen to have a miracle fusion on hand. Its the latter card that really presents the threat if you ask me, at any point you can topdeck into a 2500 ATK monster no one wants to remove from the field. Mind you, blackwin with blizzard and vayu is by far the best deck to handle this decktype.

Great times to come back when gravekeeper decks make a return, likely my all time favourite after Samurai. Plus I should have most of those cards, including a set of super spies. That High priest/Visionary looks like a nice addition with its second effect. and its first makes it a valid EEV target even without necrovalley.

BLUE!!! Good to see your back. Sorry to hear about your current situation though.

Another card I don't know if anyone has suggested yet is Kycoo. He has always been able to do something in most formats but this one is no exception. He is invaluable right now against Zombies.

Blackwings could use Discord to stop the opponent from Synchro summoning. Blackwings are typically sturdy enough to handle the common monsters of todays meta so I think Discord could be a great asset. Better than Oppression anyway.

And since you like really out there cards... Fiend Comedian. Lol.

With the release of Customs of the Imperial Court/"Imperial Custom", then perhaps a removal-based Deck with Macro Cosmos could be done again. Add in things like Soul Absorption and/or D. D. Dynamite and you can have good LP and/or good burn. Heck, with the LP, Ancient Leaf becomes a 2nd Pot of Greed for the Deck really. Been using it + Chaos Greed for 4-6 copies of Pot of Greed essentially, lol.

Yes it was mentioned earlier, and indeed worth a try at making it work in here.

Doesn't really work with my initial way of thinking for this deck, but I can think of ways to make it work, it is indeed of more value to me than oppression. And a totally new card to me btw.

I love obscure cards, but if I don't play oppression due to bad luck with conflicting strategies, chance cards are unlikely to do it for me :p

I thought briefly on macro cosmos regardless because continuous spells and traps seems to stay around quite a bit longer than they used to in the past, monster based s/t removal doesn't appear to be very big anymore, leaving you relatively safe until an MST/storm is drawn. Pity about imperials customs being a trap card though. It could definitely work in a GK strategy (how do necro and macro interact anyway ? macro takes the cards before they hit the grave right ?) with something like a cat of ill omen to make it a little more consistent.

I still don't quite see macro as being fast enough, and too dependent on card combinations.

With Graveyard targeting so big, Big Burn could be something to consider too.

Summon Limit could be something to try out; prevent people from Summoning more than 2 times per turn.