Jump to content
Arbalest's Big Crossbow

ABC Discusses Tagforce Characters (TF1 #5-2 - Skull Servants, no Ruins)

Recommended Posts

Ok, full disclosure, this is the first time I've ever done anything like this, so I'm probably going to be kinda sloppy here. Tagforce 1 is an old-as-hell game and I only recently discovered the power of emulators, so I picked it back up. I personally love the idea of a video game that takes an era of an ever-shifting card game and preserves a particular era of it. In fact, I'd love for there to be such an option for literally every era of Yugioh, but that would probably never happen. I plan on reviewing all the characters and their decks through the entire series (if I don't get disinterested first, that's something I worry will happen), but unfortunately Tagforces 3 and 6 are not on the emulator. Maybe they're out there somewhere and I'm bad at finding them though. If a character appears in multiple games, I'll only discuss them in the current game I'm going over. I'll first talk about the generics from the 3 schools, then the non-generic side characters, then the main ones.

 

Tagforce 1 #1: Aite

unknown.png

172mcc.jpg

Annie:

unknown.png

Aite can be found in the store before school, and in the Slifer Red cafeteria after school. He spends his entire time in there, even when it isn't dinnertime. He talks to you about not having enough DP (that's the currency used to buy packs and sandwiches in this game, he doesn't have anything to do with Duel Portal) to buy all the cards he wants. He also implies that the price of packs could change from time to time, but this doesn't actually happen. Some packs stop being available depending on the day or character relations, and you end up unlocking a bunch as you play, but that's it really. If you try to give him a sandwich, he tells you that he just ate, which is actually a clever line in retrospect because he appears in the store and the lunchroom most of the time, and that response makes sense in both places. He probably is just lying though, but you can't call him out on it.

Aite goes in several different directions with his Zombie Deck. He has Castle of Dark Illusions & Pumpking, which were unplayably janky even back then. He runs a bunch of Normal monsters, but has little reason to. A few duelists in this game run Heart of the Underdog but Aite is not one of them. Then he also has the Decayed Commander+Zombie Tiger Union, but only two copies of each and no support whatsoever for them. Also I should mention that it's an absolute crime that GobZom can't search either of them. Return Zombie can stall pretty decently, but he has no other cards that help him do this. Reborn Zombie doesn't even work without a select few cards that skip your Draw Phase, which, you guessed it, he has none of at all. It only works if you Time Seal him. His best move is Fusion Summoning his dead elephant for a 2200 attacker. Great Mammoth of Goldfine shares a fusion material with Skelgon, and is a significantly better card than it. Get dunked on, you weird zombie serpent dragon thing, whatever you're supposed to be. Aite's deck is one of several that demonstrates to the player the danger of not having a focus for your deck. Yeah, his deck is Zombie themed, but that doesn't mean you just toss in a bunch of zombie-themed cards (ROBBIN' ZOMBIE I'M STARING DIRECTLY AT YOU) and call it a deck. It also demonstrates to the player that they shouldn't run a bunch of bad normal monsters. Very important pointer everyone needs to hear. Dude's just a living, breathing tutorial tip.

Whichever direction he wants to go with his Zombie deck, he would benefit greatly by having Pyramid Turtle in there. He has 3 Books of Life, so surely he must've pulled at least one Pyramid Turtle. Maybe even a Vampire Lord, even a Vampire's Curse. Actually, I should stop considering that he might not be able to afford all the cards when thinking of how to fix his deck. Just, triple Pyramid Turtles, throw in some Vampires, add a fuckton of staples because where even are those in this deck, and the rest I guess can be filled out with GobZom and uhhhh maybe the Great Mammoth of Goldfine thing. I haven't reached the Zombie pack yet, but when I do I could try rebuilding his deck with more thought. It does seem like a fun idea, but that's probably just because I really like Zombie monsters. You can also make Skull Servants or a Bone Tower mill deck in this game iirc, but that's more in the territory of another duelist I should be getting to soonish. If you wanna keep the Slifer Red feel, you could just replace some vanillas with Pyramid Turtle and go all in on the Pumpking angle, because with his current deck he is one of the weaker Slifer Reds.

 

Score: 3/10

Next up will be Alvaro, who's like Weevil Underwood if Weevil was a bodybuilder. That's gotta be interesting.

Edited by Arbalest's Big Crossbow

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm doing another one of these. Time to be rude to fictional characters again.

Tagforce 1 #2: Alvaro

unknown.png

Another Slifer Red student, Alvaro can be found at the volcano whenever he isn't in class. His deal is that he's made the classical blunder of thinking that dueling strength can be improved by increasing your own physical strength. But despite being put in Slifer Red and losing duels, he refuses to stop working out. It's the only thing he cares about. He refuses to accept sandwiches from you because they don't build muscle. Probably not a good idea for him to hang out at the volcano all day long then. It's pretty neat to have a character who is so utterly wrong about a basic concept like strength, but since he's a generic side character they unfortunately don't flesh him out at all. He's just the silly muscle guy who runs a semi-annoying high-DEF deck.

 

Alvaro's deck actually has a focus, unlike the previous duelist. Just castle up with a Petit Moth equipped with Cocoon of Evolution, then protect it with cards like Chorus of Sanctuary, The Reliable Guardian, and Castle Walls (which he runs 3 of instead of a third Shrink). Then, after he does this for a while, he sacrifices his Petit Moth for Larvae Moth, making him an absolute chad and deserving of Obelisk Blue rank. If only the faculty understood his power. Ok, to be serious, I think the only reason he runs Larvae Moth is so that the AI messes up its own gameplan if he happens to start up the Cocoon timer. This, coupled with his AI spending his DEF-boost cards on his searchers, and his AI sometimes not putting Cocoon on his Moth even when he can for some reason, makes what would be a decent Slifer Red significantly worse. If you can't defeat his high-DEF monsters, you can just deck him out, destroying searchers to shift the favor more in your favor.

If I were to remake this deck, I would probably drop the DEF-boosting cards and instead use Heart of Clear Water and other cards that will help protect against effect destruction. After all, no amount of DEF will save you from a Lightning Vortex. Well, neither would Heart of Clear Water, but that's where other protection cards come in. Or even some Counter Traps. Spell Shield Type-8 would also be really nice here. There would also be plenty of room for cards like Doom Dozer and some staples, though by this point he should definitely stop being a Slifer Red. He deserves it though, because of Larvae Moth. Then again, there are several Insect Duelists in this game, so Doom Dozer might fit better with one of them. He definitely needs an extra win condition aside from Cocoon though.

Score: 5/10

Next time, I will finally talk about someone who isn't a Slifer Red!

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 11/15/2020 at 6:41 PM, LordCowCow said:

I feel like I should mention I'm enjoying reading these. I have very little idea what is going on but still.

Appreciate the effort of linking to the cards!

I'm glad to hear that! I guess I missed rambling on and on about cards lol.

 

Tagforce 1 #3: Anca

unknown.png

And here's the first of the Obelisk Blue students. She seems to be fond of the ocean's scent as you can find her in the harbor during mornings and then she spends the rest of her time after class at the beach. Or maybe she just really likes looking at the ocean. If that's the case, she's missing out because the ocean looks best at the cliff. Interestingly enough, the Slifer student Rei always appears in the same zone as her, though in the mornings he is closer to the lighthouse. Anca will talk to you about North Academy and wonders aloud if they really go to that place via submarine. Apparently according to the Wiki, if you lose a duel to her she will suggest that you buy her a sandwich, but won't actually accept them. If you challenge her to a duel, she will warn you not to underestimate her. She is an Obelisk Blue after all! However, if you beat her, she will ask that you take it easy on her (unless you win under 4k LP, then she asks if you actually did take it easy on her). She also will appear as an opponent during Tag Duel Sundays, teamed up with Rie (not to be confused with Rei. Rie is another Obelisk Blue girl whose name is just really similar. AND THEN THERE'S ANOTHER STUDENT NAMED RAY. STOP IT). She is honestly a bit of a weird character, since she doesn't want to be underestimated and at the same time she wants you to take it easy on her, easy enough for her to win and try to get a sandwich out of you. A SANDWICH WHICH SHE REFUSES TO EAT. I guess her entire character is the whole "Lol girls are so confusing, amirite fellas?" trope.

 

If you thought that she would have a WATER deck since she appears near the water all the time, then get stick bugged lol. Anca runs a Warrior Toolbox deck. Her main go-to cards are Command Knight for bonus damage, Mataza the Zapper for the double swing, and Marauding Captain for the extra damage and possible attack lock. A common tactic for her to use is to use Creature Swap on one of her floaters, then swing into it and get an extra Warrior out of her deck. She also isn't too keen on Trap Cards, since she runs Jinzo and three Royal Decrees. With RotA, she can access removal cards like Exiled Force and D.D. Warrior Lady faster than most other duelists that run them just because. The AI doesn't make very many mistakes with her deck, the biggest ones being that she tends to float through all of her floaters before finally summoning Mataza or Command Knight.

I'm not too familiar with Warrior Toolbox decks, so I'm not too sure on what I would do differently if I were to make a Warrior Toolbox deck in this game. Maybe just take out the third copy of a few monsters to replace with D.D. Assailant/Warrior, and then switch out a few of the floaters for a few Warrior Ladies of the Wasteland. Generally, you would want Giant Rat for the broader search range, but she doesn't take advantage of that in this deck, plus the Warrior Lady could further bolster her monsters' ATK through The A. Forces.

It can be wild looking back at past banlists and seeing what was on them. Exiled Force? Breaker? United We Stand? Another reason why I'm so interested in these past formats of Yugioh is looking back at all these cards that are utter garbage now but used to be really good.

Score: 2/10

That concludes this entry. Next duelist will be another Obelisk Blue girl before we head back to Slifer Red.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Tagforce 1 #4: Andrea

unknown.png

The first of two Dinosaur duelists (unfortunately, the other one is not Tyranno Hassleberry). Andrea is a timid girl who loves to use the Ellipses of Shyness. I mean, look at this.

unknown.png

unknown.png

unknown.png

unknown.png

unknown.png

She even apologizes to you if you try to give her a sandwich.

unknown.png

 

As the screenshots show, she was once up against a duelist who used Gravity Bind on her, and she wasn't able to counter it at all. During the long years where MST was Limited, cards like Gravity Bind were definitely scary. One thing I like about Andrea is that this Random Helpful Tip From A NPC actually has an impact on her deck, as you'll be able to see when I get to that part of this post. Anyways, back to Andrea herself. She arrives to class early with her friend Jewels, and then the two of them head over to the shop after their lessons. Unlike the Anca and Rei situation from the previous post, Andrea and Jewels are always close to one another. In class, they're even turned towards each other as if in conversation. And then they're together during Tag Duel Sunday.

 

With MST, Heavy Storm, and even cards like Gilasaurus and Super Conductor Tyranno, Andrea is ready for Gravity Bind now. The AI in this game (and probably every other game) refuses to Special Summon Gilasaurus if the opponent has any monsters in the GY that they could possibly get back, even though her deck has a neat combo in which she could use that SS to play Hunting Instinct and cheat a high-level dino into play. She also doesn't seem to be the biggest fan of Big Evolution Pill either. Instead, she insists on Summoning her boss monsters "the right way" through tributes. This significantly weakens her as an opponent, though she can still pose a bit of a challenge with decent ATK dinos with piercing damage.

Aside from getting her an AI that lets her use her own tricks, I'd probably change her deck by taking out Treeborn Frog and Tail Swipe. Treeborn Frog provides infinite ammo for Super Conductor, but she puts down so much backrow that it can oftentimes be a dead card. As tribute fodder, it's nice, but again, she has ways to cheat in her bosses, she doesn't really need Treeborn for that. As for Tail Swipe, it can be nice for stubborn defenders like Marshmallon, but her bosses are good at destroying everything else. And if she does run across Marshmallon, that's what her piercers are for. This would bring her down to 39 cards, She could probably run another high-level dinosaur, since she only runs 5 of them in her entire deck. It just doesn't seem very consistent to me. She could probably also swap out Morphing Jar for Cyber Jar since that one is just plain broken. Maybe even switch out Jurassic World for Gaia Power since her deck is so EARTH-centric and she definitely gets a huge edge from stronger Hyper Hammerheads and Sword Beasts.

Score: 7/10

The next character I will be talking about is a big nerd! Stay tuned!

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs
Can't count

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wait, it's been two weeks since I last updated this? Holy shit. I thought I was getting close to unlocking the game's Zombie pack, and wanted to try to do that for this character. But nope, that pack is unlocked later on. I'll have to do this without that pack.

Tagforce 1 #5: Bawnji

unknown.png

Bawnji is a bit of a secret character, spending all of his time holed up in his dorm room - room 101 of the Slifer Red facility. This room is shared with Blair Flannigan. What does Bawnji do in his room all day? Well, the same thing everyone else does in their rooms:

Spoiler

read books!

He doesn't really interact with his roommate at all, which is a damn shame. I guess he's such a reserved bookworm that he doesn't want to talk to anyone. In fact, he seems to prioritize books first to the point where you would have to wonder if he even wants to be a duelist. Like, dude, get out of here, and go be a librarian or something. Not this librarian, but a librarian. If you challenge him to a duel, he does mention he was reading a book about dueling, but when I see his deck I suspect he meant the type of dueling where you take ten steps then shoot someone. Overall, he is a very boring character.

Bawnji runs a deck that tries to be both a Skull Servant Deck and a Blasting the Ruins deck. His deck runs on the card Human-Wave Tactics to more easily dump Skull Servants into the GY while also setting up for his explosive Traps. Bawnji may have book smarts, but he apparently does not have counting smarts, which would explain the presence of Dokuroizo and 13th Grave in his deck. Even if he wanted to be thematic and run low-level vanilla Zombies, he could have done so using Clown ZombiePharaoh's Servant, and Pharaonic Protector. I can see the appeal of Silent Doom and Soul Resurrection to set Human-Wave Tactics back up, but running both at 3 is overkill. And then there's Miracle Dig, which is completely unusable here unless he floats King of the Skull Servants... several times.

Now for the part of the post where I tell fictional characters to run Pyramid Turtle and Vampire Lord, even a Vampire's Curse. He could also run Foolish Burial to set up his King of the Skull Servants even faster. Goblin Zombie to search his boss (and even further thin his deck). Even though I think his use of Poly and the Fusion subs to fill his GY with even more cards is creative, it isn't very impactful on the board and he can absolutely cut them for more good generic cards. And get a third Blasting the Ruins. He runs a very interesting deck and when I eventually unlock the Zombie pack, I really wanna remake it myself.

Score: 7/10

The next character I will talk about is another Obelisk Blue student. In fact, there's gonna be 3 Obelisk Blues in a row.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs
I did not accidentally rate him a 67/10

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So you're telling me

The Wights user

Likes to read books and is bad at the game?

and rooms with best girl

If anyone tells me I'm any other ygo character they're wrong

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This next character should be made mod.

Tagforce 1 #6: Bivin

unknown.png

First Obelisk Blue boy, both in name and in the duelist list, found taking a morning walk in the woods or in the duel field after class. The wiki says that he doesn't have much self-confidence, but his lines imo sound more like he's just laid back. When I think of an Obelisk Blue student, I think of people like Zachary from Duel Links - a total asshole who looks down on everyone else. Bivin is nothing like that. In fact, there's only like one Obelisk Blue who is hostile towards you, besides Chazz at the beginning.

unknown.png

Like many of the other generic NPCs, he gives you a deckbuilding tip when you talk to him. His is that you need to be good at both drawing the right cards and playing those cards well in order to be a great duelist. The latter is something you can master, but the former is basically him telling you to run Pot of Greed or have the heart of the cards on your side at all times.

unknown.png

This line after you duel him suggests that he can see card spirits, which I think only a select few people can actually do? I'm not actually sure, but I'm just going to say that yes he can see them. Anyways I feel like I'm scratching the bottom of the barrel with this character's, er, character pretty quickly, so let's move on to his deck.

First of all, I want to point out that Tagforce 1 exaggerates the frown that duelists make when they lose and it's fucking hilarious. And the thing is that this doesn't happen immediately. The duelists will say their "Oh no I lost" line, stop, and then a half-second later the game takes their normal mouth shape and does this with it. It was probably not all that noticeable on the PSP but on a bigger screen it sticks out.

Anyways, Bivin! If it weren't for the AI being so bad that Nova (and Woody to a lesser extent) can't even properly play their own alternative win conditions, then Bivin would be the worst Obelisk Blue student by a mile. His deck looks like it should belong to a Ra Yellow student who runs amazing backrow with a shitty monster lineup. (We will actually be seeing a Ra Yellow who does exactly that soon!) He runs a bunch of turtle monsters for the sake of running turtle monsters, backed up by a fearsome assortment of Trap Hole cards. Cards like Blood Sucker are apparently ran because their Japanese name contains "kame" so he for some reason thinks that they're turtles? Idk, it's weird and a horrible choice.

If I were to remake this deck, I would pretty much just start over. Barely any of the turtles have any synergy with one another. Like, at best, he can run Island Turtle with Gora Turtle and Raregold Armor to create an attack lock but the rest of the turtles should go. Mother Grizzly would be great for helping to set this lock up. The Blood Suckers can be taken out too. His Trap Hole lineup is pretty solid, the only one I'd cut is D.D. Trap Hole and maybe the Adhesion one too. To fill his deck back up after removing the very heart and soul of it, you could just put his sideboard in there (take out Gernia for Vampire Lord though - yes I have once again suggested running Vampire Lord). He could use Pyramid Turtle to find his Double Coston then Tribute that for, uh, Barrel Dragon or Invader of Darkness or something. Maybe he doesn't even have to use 2-Tribute DARK monsters, he could just use Blowback Dragon or the Vampires or something instead. He also has an astonishingly low amount of staples for an Obelisk Blue. I mean, his tip was to run Pot of Greed so surely he should also be running it.

Score: 4/10

The next duelist I will review is the first of the dreaded Elemental Masters!

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are people who are absolutely willing to spend all of their free time in Discord calls and it's been draining my energy lately. How do they even manage to do this? It's wild. Just befriending someone and spending all day playing video games with them, for multiple days. Anyways, I'm blaming the fabled 'people on Discord' for this next entry being so late.

Tagforce 1 #7: Brown

unknown.png

Ah, the Elemental Masters. Six Obelisk Blue students that are always together, whether it's on the Dueling Field in the mornings or at the Obelisk Blue Boys dorm in the evenings. They all have corny lines pertaining to their respective element, some funnier than others. Brown is one of the funnier ones, what with lines like:

unknown.png

Please help, this sandwich is overshadowing me, please, I'm begging you, stop paying attention to the sandwich

unknown.png

unknown.png

unknown.png

I hope you enjoyed those lines, because that's all there is to Brown as a character. He tries to be sneaky but gets jealous that he is less popular than a sandwich.

 

When I got back into the game and saw the Elemental Masters, I forgot that they actually suck ass. In fact, they're supposed to suck ass, and you can tell because they only offer you 100 DP for defeating them rather than the normal 200 other Obelisk Blue students give. Brown probably has the worst of the bunch, with a horridly unfocused deck. I think he is supposed to have a focus on combat tricks (yes I am stealing that term from MtG, shut up) and he just runs cards like Spiritualism and Dark Mirror Force for the aesthetic. He also has some banishing cards like Lesser Fiend and Soul Demolition; the latter is actually pretty decent but the former is, wait for it, o u t s h a d o w e d by Dark Ruler Ha Des. On the bright side, Brown's deck is the first of the duelists shown so far that I can recreate! I don't have to theorize about how bad it is, I can load it and experience how utterly crappy this deck is in person! You know, in case I need to find out that Bite Shoes is bad.

So, here's how I rebuilt his deck. It hasn't been tested yet, but I can just sneak back here after a while and reflect on what I did wrong and what improved.

Spoiler

unknown.png

2x Bark of Dark Ruler

Call of the Haunted

Cyber Jar

Dark Hole

3x Dark Jeroid

Dark Necrofear

2x Dark Ruler Ha Des

2x Exarion Universe

2x Goblin King

Heavy Storm

2x Legendary Fiend

Lightning Vortex

2x Mystic Plasma Zone

3x Mystic Tomato

Mystical Space Typhoon

Pot of Avarice

Pot of Greed

Premature Burial

3x Doomcalibur Knight

2x Soul Demolition

2x Swords of Concealing Light

2x Twin-Headed Wolf

3x Wall of Illusion

I kept going from trying to make a Fiend deck that isn't an exact copy of the game's resident Fiend duelist by including cards she doesn't use such as Legendary Fiend and Dark Necrofear, and a DARK-themed beatdown deck that uses cards like Doomcalibur Knight and Exarion Universe boosted by the Field spell. I don't really know why I took out the Guardian cards, since Baou is actually pretty decent once you get him his first kill, but maybe I can take out some of the cards that don't mesh well here to put them back in. Puppet Magic honestly is kinda alright, but a bunch of the stronger cards in this deck can't be Special Summoned by it and that sucks.

Score: 4/10

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I forgot to mention it in the previous post but you're getting two of the Elemental Masters in a row. I'm sure you're all blown away by this.

 

Tagforce 1 #8: Celia

unknown.png

The lone girl of the Elemental Master group. Celia, like Brown before her, has an entire character gimmick based around her attribute, and since she is the Wind one, of course she always talks about blowing. Her favorite part of the island is the breeze and she refuses sandwiches because they can be blown away with a little bit of wind... Either she is vastly understating how much wind is involved here or the sandwiches she's seen weigh as much as a sheet of paper. She also mentions that the island is in the Pacific Ocean, in case you needed to know that. When the Elemental Masters are all together, she's always beside the leader of the group, Seydina, so naturally I keep assuming that the two are dating. Now that I think of it, what if the Elemental Masters are just Seydina and his friends, and they have this exclusive clique because they're all a bunch of massive dorks.

She's an Elemental Master so of course this deck is complete garbage. She kinda wants to run the super ancient DNA Insect deck, but she also wants to run WIND Beatdown, and she also wants to run... Fairy Guardian? She runs Guardian Elma, but since her needed equip spell is banned she can't do anything with at. At least she can search it with Arsenal Summoner. And at least she can search her despairingly awful Fairy Guardian. Sasuke Samurai 1 and 4 are both decent, 2 is not. Also I love how she runs Magic Reflector seemingly for the chance that she has to Heavy Storm her own Field Spell or resurrection cards. And then there is Insect Queen, which is famous for being a Wind monster.

What would I do to fix this deck? Well, my very first choice would be to make Syun the real Wind Elemental Master, as he runs a Wind deck that is actually pretty decent. But failing that, maybe build a deck based around Simorgh, Bird of Divinity since I don't think anyone does that in this game. Simorgh isn't a great card, but we can make something work.

Spoiler

unknown.png

Book of Moon

3x Bottomless Trap Hole

Call of the Haunted

Dark Hole

3x Dust Tornado

3x Flying Kamakiri #1

3x Giant Trunade

Heavy Storm

Lightning Vortex

Magic Cylinder

Mystical Space Typhoon

Pot of Avarice

Pot of Greed

Premature Burial

2x Rising Air Current

3x Sakuretsu Armor

3x Simorgh, Bird of Divinity

3x Slate Warrior

2x Spear Dragon

Swift Birdman Joe

Swords of Revealing Light

3x Whirlwind Prodigy

I've barely tested this deck, but it works smoothly enough in the tests I have done. Bottomless and Sakuretsu are amazing cards and do a great job at protecting your Spear Dragon, while Giant Trunade can open your opponent up for some aggression in addition to a 1000 burn per Simorgh, AND THEN on top of that you can recycle your CotH or Swords with it. Geez I wonder why that card got banned... The world may never know. I decided to run only WIND monsters because Celia is supposed to be the Wind Elemental Master, so running cards like Sangan, Marshmallon, or Chiron the Mage are unfortunately out of the question.

Score: 2/10

Up next we will finally, after all this time, see one (1) single Ra Yellow student!

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've been goofing off in YCM a while and one thing I can say concerning that site is that projection is one hell of a drug.

Tagforce 1 #9: Colin

unknown.png

Finally, someone from the Ra Yellow dorm. Colin is a dork who likes to hang out at the main gate of the school, even after school's over. He's the only generic duelist that gives you a dialogue tree when you talk to him, because he asks you something important: "Do you have a card crush in your deck?" When I first saw this question, my moron child self thought he was talking about Crush Card Virus for some reason, so this was really weird to me. It took me way too long to realize what he actually meant.

As it turns out, card crushes are an odd minor theme in GX. They are cards that you add to your deck because you like them very a lot. Cards that don't fit in the deck at all, but they make your skin tingle when you look at them. Basically, you added the Dark Magician Girl to your deck for no reason you weirdo. What the hell is wrong with you? Syrus will oftentimes comment that his card crush is Thunder Nyan Nyan, and even Bastion, the Yugioh Einstein or whatever, is not immune to this. His card crush is White Magician Pikeru. Colin serves to instruct the player that adding cards to their deck because they make their peepee hard is actually a very bad idea and not to do it. Don't do it or else he will be disappointed in you. And also it will make your deck worse, but that's not as important.

4sec0i.jpg

IT WAS ALL A LIE, A RUSE. COLIN HAS STOLEN YOUR DARK MAGICIAN GIRL AND IS RUNNING OFF WITH HER AS WE SPEAK. COME BACK HERE WITH MY WIFE YOU BASTARD

So, Colin runs a Charmer Deck. He has figured out how to run card crushes without compromising his deck - or that would be what I would say if he weren't also running a bunch of flavor cards like Dryad and Petit Dragon. I don't think I've ever made Charmers simply because they look terribly RNG dependent. Like if your opponent is running an EARTH deck and you draw Hiita. Or if your opponent runs a bunch of LIGHT monsters and you can't do anything except sit there and die because Lyna the Light Charmer wouldn't be released for another 4 years. It also does not help one bit that his deck is so cramped that he cannot run any particular charmer at 3 copies, ironically due to his random deck additions that are functionally the same as card crushes despite not being traditional card crushes. I mean, unless you are madly in love with the Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness and want to marry it? Doriado is actually great for Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan, but by running only 1 of those and not actually working for a Doraido deck this is just a terribly inconsistent combo that leaves him with even more dead cards.

I would immediately get rid of all of the familiars from this deck, as well as the rest of the normal monsters. I'd also get rid of the Spiritual Arts except for a copy or two of the WATER one, since having so many of these just adds RNG on top of even more RNG, and you really don't need that. He can also afford to lose the Weed Out since it's quite likely he will trip over it. Instead, you need to make sure you have the right Charmer for the situation. Cards like Sangan, Cyber Jar, and the Pots of Greed and Avarice will help out consistency immensely. DNA Transplant allows you to switch your opponent's monsters' Attributes to work with the Charmers you drew, though it permanently disables the other ones unless you have Heavy Storm or Giant Trunade. Swords of Revealing Light is great for allowing you to Flip Summon a Charmer without being smacked in the face for a lot of damage on the next turn. Finally he can add some cards that want to Tribute the monsters he steals. Cards like Enemy Controller, Share the Pain, or Tribute Summonable monsters like  the Monarchs Zaborg or Mobius.

 

Colin has too many waifus to put into one deck. This time he runs a deck based around White Magician Pikeru and Black Magician Curran, both in functionality as well as flavor. He then adds Fire Princess so that his normally use-impaired heal effects can be used to inflict burn damage. There's also a bunch of Token generators so that he can get even more healing and/or burn damage off with cards like Token Thanksgiving and Token Feastevil (I only learned today that the card's name isn't Token Festival). Creature Swap lets him trade one of those tokens with an opponent's monster.

I'm even less knowledgeable about Princess decks than I am with Charmers, but, off the bat, get rid of cards like Queen's Double, Princess of Tsurugi, and the Pikeru Traps, since they barely contribute to the strategy. He could also ditch the Fire Sorcerers since they require you to lose two cards for an Ookazi, which is completely terrible. These cards can be replaced with a battle floater to help find either Pikeru, Curran, or Fire Princess. I say use one of these because I think he should also run a copy of a low-ATK Level 5+ monster that you can also search up. For example, if he runs UFO Turtle to search up his Fire Princess, he can also run Woodborg Inpachi as a wall that he can later swap over to his opponent with Creature Swap, then kill it for his Trial of the Princesses. Alternatively, he could just give up on the Trial of the Princesses strategy because it sucks so much ass.

Since Colin has one of those special multi-choice answers and is the only generic duelist to use more than one deck, it seems like he was supposed to be more important to the player than he ended up being when the game released. This is a shame, because I'd love to see more interesting generics. Anyways, the next duelist is pure evil! I'll see you all when I'm done procrastinating for a month!

Score: 9/10

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs
83 years later I just now noticed "Tiral of the Princesses"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you need helping find a VERY LEGITIMATE 100% LEGAL copy of Tag force 3 and 6 let me know.

In any case I find this very enjoyable so thank you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 1/4/2021 at 4:38 AM, Tormented said:

If you need helping find a VERY LEGITIMATE 100% LEGAL copy of Tag force 3 and 6 let me know.

In any case I find this very enjoyable so thank you.

I would very much appreciate a VERY LEGITIMATE 100% LEGAL copy of those two games.

 

Anyway, getting this next entry done much sooner than I thought. Here's Corey.

Tagforce 1 #10: Corey

unknown.png

If you go to beach in the morning, you will find this student staring out at the ocean from the Beach. What is he looking at? Does he like staring at it? Does he want to spot a whale surface for air? Did he have a late friend who was taken by the sea and he wants nothing more than revenge? Let's ask him why he-

unknown.png

Oh, ok. A bit rude. Maybe if I give him a sandwich, he will be more cordial to-

unknown.png

So much for that. Anyway, he doesn't return to the beach in the afternoon. Instead, he hangs out at the Volcano. I have no idea why the Volcano is such a hot spot in the afternoons (... ... ... ... ... knOWledGe Of puN iNtenTiON deNied...), but he's one of five people who hang out there, the only one who isn't right beside someone else. His cold, robotic speech and his deck of choice make it seem like Corey here just doesn't like people. It's like he does everything he can to put them off. He isn't here to give you any advice or to reference the show. He wants you to go away. And go away we shall - to the next part of this entry.

4shvpo.jpg

I'd like to think that originally Corey was meant to have a more potent Final Countdown deck, without the burn cards tossed in, but the people designing the game realized how unfun it was to duel him so they changed his deck to be much more merciful. Instead of having turn after turn of Trap Cards canceling your Battle Phase, he instead runs this FC/burn near-highlander disaster. He can still be tough to duel, but he's so much easier than he could be. His Solar Flare Dragons and Lava Golem work well with his stall cards, but aside from that the two win conditions aren't all that compatible.

I was thinking to myself, "Hmm, Final Countdown is really annoying to play against, so do I really want to remake his deck as the infamous anti-BP stall-til-you-win deck?" And maybe the answer to that question is yes.

Corey needs to figure out what kind of deck he wants to run, either Final Countdown or Burn, but not both. Since Final Countdown is more unique to him, I'll just go with that. Toss out all of the burn cards. Final Countdown works by trading one card to stop the opponent from attacking, so this means I will also have to ditch almost all the monsters. While I'm at it, get rid of the Magical Mallet, Creature Swap, Shallow Grave, Draining Shield, and maybe even the Snatch Steal as OP as it is. In their place, put in the remaining copies of Final Countdown and Different Dimension Capsule - consistency is important. Now, instead of adding three copies of Threatening Roar, Waboku, and Thunder of Ruler, I'm going to also make him more merciful, just in a way that still functions as decent stall. He can still run some of those Traps I mentioned, but not all three of them. Instead, I wanna have him focus on creating monster locks, such as The Dark Door and Gyroid, Marauding Captain, and Command Knight. These locks tend to be annoying but you can get past them with removal, as opposed to the infinite line of Traps that is pretty much only countered with Jinzo or Royal Decree.

OR MAYBE I SHOULD. NO BATTLE PHASE FOR YOU EVER AGAIN. GET MORE SPIRIT REAPERS. IS THERE STILL ROOM TO THROW IN WINGED KURIBOH AND THE FLUTE SO YOU CAN SUMMON IT RIGHT OUT OF THE DECK ?

Score: 8/10

Next up, we'll be going back to Ra Yellow to talk about Craig. See you then!

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had meant to make this entry on Craig at least a week ago, but I had gotten distracted by a recently released mod for Duelist of the Roses that makes everyone significantly harder, makes leveling up monsters significantly faster, and lets you actually obtain any card in the game in one form or another. So I've been busy playing the hell out of that (and I haven't even started a new playthrough for the intended experience, silly me). It's a great mod and I'm really glad to see that game get some sort of love after all of these years, even if it isn't the dream that is DotR 2. Anyways, this isn't a blog about DotR, it's about Tagforce. And right now, it's about Craig.

Tagforce 1 #11: Craig

unknown.png

You can find Craig at the Cliff before school, but he goes to the Volcano afterwards (hey, we were just there!) In both instances, Craig is with an Obelisk Blue student named Matthew. It's really neat to see the generic duelists have friendships, I just wish they would at the very least acknowledge each other instead of standing together at every given moment of the day. The deep juicy lore between the two is that Craig takes dueling much more seriously than his friend does, yet Matthew is the one who's in Obelisk Blue. The most logical and BORING explanation would be that Matthew was here first, but I like the idea that Matthew is just a lazy genius vs. Craig being a determined idiot. That theory would actually make Craig's deck fit perfectly to his character.

When you talk to Craig, he says that there are rumors that Zane has a brother who goes to this school. You have to talk to Syrus before even getting the chance to speak to any of the generic duelists, so, yeah, thanks for telling us what we already know, Craig. Craig wonders if this mysterious brother figure that Zane has is as good a duelist as Zane is. People call Zane "Emperor Zane" in Yugioh GX, but in Tagforce 1 the generic duelists usually talk about one thing, making Craig probably the only person who actually calls him Emperor Zane. It just makes it a lot funnier than it really is.

And speaking of goofy things that Craig does, Craig likes to say your name. Most duelists don't say your name even one time, but Craig has at least four lines where he says your name.

 

unknown.png

I-

 

Craig's deck is full of naming errors. I think I already mentioned that Mist Body is called "Mistobody" here, but all of the Machina cards are "Machiners" cards. You can probably see why I said that his deck reinforces the idea that Craig is a determined idiot; he has an incredible backrow lineup featuring BTH, Sakuretsu Armor, MST, Heavy Storm, both revival cards, and even Dust Tornado. Craig's backrow makes him an annoying opponent to duel against, BUT, he is still easy. His backrow is meant to buy him time to bring out his boss monster, Machiners Machina Force. On paper, this is a pretty sound archetype for what Machina cards we have so far: You summon Soldier, SS Sniper, put Mist Body on Sniper so your monsters are safe. Then get out Machina Defender and flip it up to get Commander Covington, and bam, there you go, one boss monster. But it just doesn't work. You still need to get four monsters whose stats range from bad to mediocre onto the field just to put them together for a boss monster whose only effect is that it can detach itself to put those monsters back onto the field Valkyrion-style. You even have to pay LP to attack with Machina Force. What the actual fuck, Craig.

I even copied over his deck to see just how inconsistent it is, and yes, it is terrible. You sit there and counter cards until you dead draw enough crappy Machina cards to lose. I'd fix this deck by swapping out... uh... the Gaia Powers and the Noblemen of Crossout for 3x Giant Trunade to recycle your Steel Cages/Swords/Premature while also clearing up backrow for when you go on the offensive. I also added a copy of Cyber Jar which as insanely OP as it is, it is essential if you want to bring out this shitty boss monster. Like, I could never summon Machina Force until I added Cyber Jar. The stall spells, BTH, Saku, and Widespread Ruin are great for making sure you can flip it on your turn.

unknown.png

unknown.png

If you want a Machina deck in Tagforce 1, this is probably the best you can do since the archetype in its state when this game was made is not good for anything but making Machina Force. Maybe switch some card ratios around like -1 Widespread for +1 Sakuretsu. If you want to further fix Craig's deck, just switch out the Machina cards for a monster lineup that isn't garbage.

Score: 5.5/10

After the next duelist, we will be halfway through the cycle of Elemental Masters. The other half won't show up for a long, long time.

Edited by Arbalest's Big Crossbow
Craig's better than a 4/10

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What could possibly be a better way of warming up in this winter than to read another entry of ABC reviewing a bunch of generic NPCs, and getting to the guy who only speaks in cheesy fiery lines all the time?

 

Tagforce 1 #12: Dante

unknown.png

The Elemental Master of Fire, in case the name didn't give it away. Like the others in his group, he is always in the Dueling Arena in the mornings and the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm during after school hours. He talks about the Volcano area, because, you know, fire. Too bad for him, he has to remain glued to his friends at all times so he can't ever visit the volcano. Unlike Brown whose character we can somewhat glimpse at despite his cheesy dialogue, there isn't really any character to Dante at all. It's just a bunch of lines reminding you that he is the Fire guy. At most, there's his line when you offer him a sandwich.

unknown.png

"Sorry, I can't accept your sandwich, because it doesn't make me horny." Thanks, Dante. That's your entire character now.

On the bright side, that means I can get through this part of the character analysis faster.

First of all, I would like to apologize to Celia for making fun of her deck for including a singular EARTH monster. Please accept my apology, fictional girl. I should have instead saved it for Dante, because what the actual fuck is this. He gives up on making a FIRE deck halfway through and just starts tossing in cards from the Inpachi series and a few cards that feature Kozaky in them. They have little to no synergy with one another, and he doesn't run any of them at enough copies for it to be a primary strategy for his deck. On top of that, what combos he does have are just plain shit. He can use Level Conversion Lab to make Ultimate Obedient Fiend (and no other monsters in his entire deck) easier to summon, but that card only works as a giant obstacle because he will almost always have other cards in his possession that he can't get rid of on his own. He can use The Thing in the Crater in order to float, but he only has 3 possible targets for this: Jigen Bakuden (which sucks and won't even be able to use its flip effect if summoned this way), Gaia Soul (which will just die at the end of the turn), and Guardian Ceal (needs the Bow to be on the field in order to even work). He can combo Big Burn with D.D. Dynamite, but then it makes his Blasting the Ruins unplayable and weakens Cemetary Bomb (TIL: that card's name has a typo and it was never fixed). If he ever gets Ceal out onto the field, he can equip it with Black Pendant so that when Ceal's effect goes off you take 500 damage. Hell yeah 500 damage. His only good plays are to bring out Gaia Soul or Spirit of Flames for some semi-good attack power, even if those Gaia Souls die in the End Phase. As bad as his character and deck are, I at least appreciate the presumably unintentional Dante's Inferno reference. Congratulations on accomplishing one thing.

How would I fix this guy's deck? Easy. Burn it.

I would consider my own take on a FIRE deck incomplete. I made a Baseball deck as a young child/teenager, and it included Return from the Different Dimension and Dimension Fusion so that you could banish monsters for Spirit of Flames/Inferno much more liberally, then get them back so that your Baseball Kids could be stupidly strong. Unfortunately I don't have either of those cards yet. For the sake of FIRE purity, you could remove the Exiled Force, though Sangan and Cyber Jar are both so good that I would be hesitant to remove them as well. I used to run Twinheaded Beast as well, which worked great with your Field Spells and Chimeras, but I don't want to run more than one monster that requires a Tribute Summon and I think that Thestalos is ultimately the better choice.

Score: 1/10

The next character will be a surprise.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The surprise is that this next installment is only one week later (and a day), rather than two or three.

 

Tagforce 1 #13: Dean

unknown.png

Who knew that you would find teachers at an academy? Well, more than just Dr. Crowler. Dean is one of the probably six generic teachers in this game, and one of the two that you can converse with normally, at least in the first part. Dean spends his time in the place you would expect all teachers to spend their every waking moment: inside the classroom. No home to call his own or anything, this guy lives in the classroom.

Dean is stationary for a good reason, though. He serves a practical purpose. Each day you have a chance of receiving a random email from Chancellor Shepherd, saying that you've won the lottery. Or, to put it more accurately to what the game calls it: You were randomly selected as a Recommended Duelist. So you won the lottery but in a less gambley way. If you speak to him on the day you win the lottery, you gain a whopping 1,000 DP, which is anywhere between 2.5-4.5 worth of duels depending on who you're dueling. A nice bonus, but kinda small and isn't that important since you can just infinitely duel the same dude a bajillion times a day for infinite DP anyway. That feature gets removed in later Tagforce games, which makes sense but rip to my infinite DP.

Edit: I forgot about the auto-acronym thing suggesting that DP stands for Draw Phase, when in this context it's the currency you use to purchase packs. Yes, I have infinite Draw Phases, and no I will not "deck out." I refuse.

Unfortunately by being a practically useful character there is no room for Dean to have any character of his own. He's just the guy who gives you points for receiving emails. Hooray. I mean, maybe he gets annoyed by students saying they got an email when they didn't actually? That's it really.

Found the Blue player.

The teachers in this game are supposed to be among the toughest duelists you'll face, and while I don't know how meta Counter Fairies were in this format I do know that Dean's Counter Fairy Deck is built pretty decently. One thing I don't like about early-era Counter Fairies is that Voltanis the Adjudicator just simply does not work with Bountiful Artemis. It's a disaster. If you have Artemis on the field and Voltanis in the hand, after playing a Counter Trap, things will go like this:

  • Bountiful Artemis's effect activate.
  • Voltanis is chained.
  • You tribute Artemis, Summon Voltanis.
  • Artemis fails to resolve because it has to be on the field in order to draw you the card.
  • Voltanis's destruction effect can't go off. You missed the timing because you were too busy failing to resolve Bountiful Artemis.
  • You break down in tears.

Thankfully this combo actually works in Duel Links, because damn does this fuckup fucking hurt.

Because of that, I would remove the Voltanises, and by extention, Synthetic Seraphim since that's a card that really only work with Voltanis. Since Fairies don't matter anymore, you could also replace Kelbek with Wall of Illusion for that slightly higher DEF, and also for another reason. By doing this, the deck now has a lot of LIGHT and DARK monsters, so you know what that means, right?

CHAOS SORCERER, BABEY. You kinda want more win conditions than those 3 Van'Dalgyons. Finally, I'd probably remove either the Curse of Royal or the Judgment of Anubis since idk about having more than one copy total of both of those cards.

Score: 3/10

That's all for Dean. The next duelist that I'll be covering is yet another Ra Yellow. They've been scarce and now all of a sudden they're all over the place! Also, he runs a FIRE Deck of his own. Lots of fire lately, huh.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm trying to get this entry out early because Geneforge 1 - Mutagen, the remake of the first Geneforge, is finally coming out on the 24th. I am very excited to play that game, and might end up neglecting this little blog for some time because of it.

Tagforce 1 #14: Deloge

unknown.png

The Ra Yellow dorm is understandably the best place to find students of that dorm. That's where you can find this guy before school, talking about how much he doesn't like the Ante rule. With the Ante rule, whoever loses in a duel has to give the winner their best card. Deloge thinks this is stupid, and he is correct. Even if it were in effect, he wouldn't even use it. Fortunately you don't have to deal with this rule at all in the game.

You know how sometimes there are those characters that just want to be your friend? Well, Deloge is the opposite of that. He wants to be your enemy.

unknown.png

Bitch, next time I'll offer you a knuckle sandwich.

After school, you can find him hanging out in the classroom. He's got detention every day, probably for trying to be everyone's rival. You, Jaden, Crowler, the cat, everyone is his rival. Ok, it's probably more likely that he's just studying after class in the classroom, but that's such a boring answer. No, he's rough and loud and he wants to fight. Shut up. When you challenge him to a duel, he warns you that he doesn't stop until his opponent surrenders, which, um, is kind of how card games work. You don't stop in the middle and call it a draw, unless you're on Duelingbook, then I guess people will try to pull that stunt on you. If you manage to beat him, he will blame his defeat on topdecking regardless of how decisive your victory is. He's lucky that I can't steal all his cards with the Ante rule, or else he won't have a top to his deck.

IMO, Deloge is the third best Ra Yellow character, and during Tag Duel Sundays he teams up with the #1 player in that spot. I love the rival tension he has with the player for no reason. He isn't a jerkass, he's just your rival. This one random generic student is your rival. Forget the characters from the show, Deloge is the true rival character. He's also got a creative deck. Speaking of which, here it is!

Deloge runs a FIRE deck that goes all out on taking advantage of Tenkabito Shien's effect. Tenkabito Shien is immune to Trap Cards, so he can survive TT and Needle Ceiling. while ignoring cards such as Gravity Bind and Begone, Knave!. His deck does have some flaws though, first of which being Ultimate Obedient Fiend being in a deck it does not belong in once again. He also goes a little bit overboard on some of these Traps that work well with Tenkabito. D.D. Trap Hole is still going to be worse than Nobleman of Crossout, and if a one-sided Curse of Anubis was good you would have seen people running Windstorm of Etaqua much more often. Then there's The Warrior Returning Alive, which doesn't have any targets in this deck. It's unplayable here. He also has only one answer for Jinzo and Royal Decree, both of which destroy his deck.

I think in order to improve his deck, he would need to remove the TWRAs, the Fiend, the Blind Destructions, Curses of Anubis, D.D. Trap Holes, and Two-Pronged Attack. I'm also not interested in The Thing in the Crater. Masked Dragon is also not enticing since he has no need to fill his GY with FIRE monsters, but at the same time his monster count is already pretty low. He can run Mask of Darkness to get his Traps back. Bottomless Trap Hole and/or Sakuretsu Armor for being great cards that he can even recycle with the Mask. Book of Moon because it's an incredible card with that tiny bit of extra synergy with Needle Ceiling. Furthermore, even with the Molten Destruction and Little Chimera, his Tenkabito Shien tends to sit around 2000-2500 ATK, which is not great. I think he would benefit a lot from adding United We Stand and Mage Power to further boost his Tenkabito. Maybe even Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu to help search those cards (and Premature). It even benefits from the FIRE boosts. Finally, he should look into running Pot of Avarice, Dark Hole, and perhaps even Double Snare as narrow as it is so that he doesn't auto-lose to Jinzo/Royal Decree.

I wanted to find a way to fit Elemental HERO Wildheart into his deck as it has the same effect, but that can't really happen since his deck focuses heavily on the FIRE attribute. Plus, if you're running Wildheart you're probably just running HEROes more than you are running a Trap Immunity deck thingy. Begone, Knave! isn't as useful if you Fusion Summon.

Score: 8/10

That's all I have to say about Deloge... or at least I think it is. I tried to go to bed like 5 hours ago and couldn't, so I'm half-groggy yet unable to sleep. The next duelist is another Ra Yellow (woah 2 of those in a row) and is basically an evil form of a character we've already seen on here. It might be a while before I get to him though.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Did you know that this character is Raeg's favorite character in the entire game? True story. He even admitted to it.

Tagforce 1 #15: Deron

unknown.png

A staple of any anime, no, any media in general that features teenagers, is the horny bastard. Today, we will be talking about the horny bastard. The dude hangs out at the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm 24/7, never leaving. Well, except to go to class. He can't let his horniness hurt his grades, after all, or else he'll be expelled from the academy and will never be able to see a girl ever again. He is busy with the daunting task of looking for girls, at the girls dorm, a task that he plans to accomplish by walking around in the area like the rest of the NPCs. He could see plenty of girls if he used his eyes, it's not like they're hiding from the creep or anything. But then he might see Vyga! And Vyga isn't a girl! Oh no!

If you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, he does say that he's looking for female duel spirits, not just girls. Regular conversation has him asking you if you're more horny for the Dark Magician Girl or Injection Fairy Lily. While he may be more interested in card spirits than actual girls, he's still really horny for girls of all stripes. Girls wear stripes, right?

He will only reluctantly duel you on the condition that you don't waste too much of his time, and he is vocal about how he would be much more willing to do so if you were a girl.

unknown.png

And if you defeat him, he complains that he lost to a guy.

unknown.png

unknown.png

Every bit of dialogue he has is about how horny is he for girls. He even turns down your sandwich offer because you're not a girl - Deron may reluctantly give up his search for female duel spirits to go to class but he draws the line at eating food that isn't from a girl. He would probably starve to death if Sadie and Dorothy at the shop were guys.

My thoughts on Deron is that he's just a worse Colin. The Anti-Colin. Colin at least warns you about adding card crushes to your deck (and then hilariously sidesteps his own advice), whereas Deron's entire life revolves around girls. He breathes and eats just for the sake of girls. Plus, with the limited interactions with the NPCs, nobody reacts to him being the most obvious creep ever to exist. Nobody runs him into the  sea for acting this way. He's just there because someone decided it was really necessary to add a horny bastard to the roster of generic duelists. Maybe if he cared exclusively about female card spirits, and is just mistaken for a horny bastard, that would be kinda funny. Especially if he doesn't even like real girls at all. But nope, he's just a horny bastard.

These near-highlander decks are such a pain. Anyway, Deron's deck is what happens when you take both of Colin's decks and mash them together. It's disgusting. He runs Charmers, Princesses, and the one Doriado because look she's a girl. And as it turns out, he likes both Dark Magician Girl and Injection Fairy Lily. There's not much I can say about this deck that I haven't already said for Colin, except for an emphasis on why would you build this. Well, aside from the obvious answer. Like, he could've just had Colin's second deck. The Wiki describes his deck as being more aggressive than Colin's, except that's only barely true. He focuses a bit more on his singular copies of the Familiar-Possessed Charmers but he still only has one copy of each, and yeah he can use Magician's Circle to summon DMG but, again, one copy.

If he wanted to make an aggressive deck full of girls, he could make Amazonesses. I don't really know all the cards they have in this game or if someone else in game uses them, but it's probably the only other functional female deck he could possibly make that isn't taken by Colin already. And then there's another female-centric deck that someone else is using, just haven't gotten to that character yet. Aggressive Spellcasters is out of the question since I know for sure that someone else runs that deck. He could also make a Doriado deck since I didn't actually suggest focusing on that card in the Colin entry. The downside to that is that it would involve running Manju and Senju and they aren't distinctly girls, oh no. Also there's a dude on the card art of Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan, can't have that now can we.

Score: 1.5/10

After dealing with this creep, it's only naturally fitting that the next duelist that I will be covering in this thread is a queen. "If she breathes," and all that.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not British but the recent drama involving their royalty is a pretty funny coincidence given that the next character I'm reviewing is this particular one.

Tagforce 1 #16: Disa

unknown.png

Disa makes sure that she's never late to class by arriving to the school at least two hours early. Honestly, I can't relate at all. I'm late to everything all the time. You can find her at the Main Gate during this time. After school, she heads back to the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm to chat with her friend Lily, while being spied on by Deron. She's one of the many duelists who will give you deckbuilding tips, hers being that if you run Ritual cards, you should also run Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands as well. Then she comments on how obvious of a tip she just gave you. One thing I really liked about Andrea was that you could actually see how her tip impacted her deck. She got wrecked by Gravity Bind once, and because of that she put in extra ways of dealing with that one card. Unfortunately for Disa, she doesn't run a Ritual deck, making her own dueling tip completely unrelated to herself. There's a Slifer Red student who runs a Ritual Deck with Manju, and he'd be a perfect candidate for giving this tip. He has his own tip, but that's also irrelevant to him and it could go to someone else instead.

Anyway, this is about Disa, not a Slifer Red student who I won't even get to this year. Judging by her deck and how early she is to class, she is definitely someone who takes dueling very seriously. Other than that, she has a plain style of speaking that makes it difficult to get any sort of glimpse at her character. She exists more so that there's another difficult generic duelist for you to face.

unknown.png

No this is a shadow duel. I'm evil now

d6a.jpg

So, Disa runs Monarchs, and she does your typical Monarch player things. She's got the Treeborn Frogs, she can steal your monsters with Brain Control, Snatch Steal, or Soul Exchange, she even runs Last Will so she can tutor up D.,D. Warrior Lady or Exiled Force for extra removal. She also deviates from the typical Monarch build a tiny bit, by running notably more Trap Cards than others would. This creates some problems with her AI. The AI will usually set up to 2 Traps per turn; they will also refuse to use Solemn Judgment unless they have somewhere around 2500 or less LP. This means that Disa may set a Solemn and then inadvertently shut off her own Treeborn engine for most of the duel. Another thing that bothers me about her deck is that she runs only 7 Tribute Summonable monsters: 3 Mobius, 2 Zaborg, 1 Granmarg, and Jinzo. This just doesn't feel like enough, though the Pot of Avarice helps alleviate this by a lot. She's also got Card Destruction and Morphing Jar to help draw into them.

Monarchs were a popular deck that scourged the meta of Yugioh for quite a while around this time period, if I remember correctly, so trying to fix her deck into the shape of one of those decks might be a bit of a boring venture. Instead, I'm going to try to do something else: Build a Monarch Deck that has a strong backrow game.

Spoiler

unknown.png

Book of Moon

3x Bottomless Trap Hole

Breaker the Magical Warrior

Call of the Haunted

Cyber Jar

D.D. Warrior Lady

3x Dandylion

Dark Hole

3x Foolish Burial

Heavy Storm

Jinzo

Lightning Vortex

3x Lord Poison

3x Mobius the Frost Monarch

Mystical Knight of Jackal

Mystical Space Typhoon

Pot of Avarice

Pot of Greed

Premature Burial

3x Sakuretsu Armor

Sangan

3x Solemn Judgment

Torrential Tribute

3x Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

This idea came to me when I looked at Vampiric Orchis (which is a Vampire in this game, but got its name changed because it isn't a real Vampire) and Des Dendle and making a Tribute Summon deck based around them, as Des Dendle gives you Tokens when the Orchis kills something. I threw in Lord Poison to help support the deck, and then tossed in Dandylion and Foolish Burial because Dandylion just worked really well with this idea. As you could probably tell, the Dandylion engine eventually overtook Vampiric Orchis entirely. While the Orchis was nice against some Slifer Reds I was testing against, it felt like I would have trouble getting it to work against duelists that could summon monsters with over 1700 ATK easily.

I said I didn't like how few Level 5+ monsters Disa ran... and then put in just as many in my own deck. Ok, no, I have one more boss monster than she does. That Mystical Knight of Jackal card. You can force your opponent to topdeck the monsters that it destroys, essentially putting your opponent in a lock if you can get this out and protect it. I just threw this in because it's one of the better Level 7+ Tribute Summonable monsters that worked with the deck, but it isn't too important. You could totally run Invader of Darkness or The Wicked Dreadroot or even Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch in its stead if you wanted.

If I had them, I would definitely run Snatch Steal, Creature Swap, or Enemy Controller since this deck doesn't steal the opponent's monsters at all in its current state. I don't know what I'd take out for them though.

Score: 6/10

Don't think that we haven't stopped plowing through all of the Ra Yellow students, because we definitely haven't! We reviewed two of them in a row before Disa, and we're gonna see two more of them in a row! Make sure you savor them while you can though, because after those two we won't be seeing any Ra Yellow students for a long, long time.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've been testing out a few more silly deck ideas. One of which being a deck that takes advantage of the fact that King of the Swamp can be recycled with Salvage and making a deck with fusion materials that are also Salvage targets. It's surprisingly functional. as bad as it is. I might replace one of the Slifer Red fusion dork's decks with it when I get to one of them.

Tagforce 1 #17: Enzo

unknown.png

Enzo can be found at any time in the Forest. Morning, evening, he's there. Presumably, he's hiking, but since NPCs barely move around he ends up taking the worst hikes ever. He also is interested in the island's power station in the mornings, so if the power ever goes out, you know who to blame. As busy as he is hiking in small circles every day, he will still make time to duel you.

He also knows how to annoy Dr. Crowler. Just use a cat, and it'll make him mad. In this game, if you pet Pharaoh the Cat in the correct spot, he will follow you for the rest of the day. So you walk up to Crowler with the cat in tow... aaaaand nothing is different about Crowler's dialogue. This is such a missed opportunity for the game. There might be a certain event later on where you need to use Pharaoh or something, but annoying Crowler with the cat in regular conversation would have been great.

If that had happened, and if the Forest area was expanded well enough to allow him to take an actual hike, he would be a pretty neat character. He wants to see... uh... trees, and he is a bit of a jokester. But unfortunately he's a generic duelist and as such dropping the ball with him is mandatory.

The worst Ra Yellow deck in the game. Enzo runs a bloated Fire Princess Burn deck that also seeks to wear out the opponent by wiping out multiple monsters with Des Counterblow. Both of these work really well with a healing deck. The problem is that in Enzo's 51-card deck, he only runs one of each. If he doesn't draw Fire Princess, all he can do is stall and heal until he dies. And if you kill his one Fire Princess, it's over for him. He can stall pretty decently by setting a wall and defending it with Draining Shield or Trap Hole, or by using cards like Nimble Momonga and Numinous Healer to rack up LP. The problem with this is that he has nothing to stall into. His only win condition is his one singular Fire Princess. Oh, I suppose he could also deck out the opponent, but he barely tries to do that.

Obviously, the first thing I'd do to fix this deck is to add extra copies of Fire Princess. Then cull some cards so that his deck isn't too large; since he runs a lot of healing he can afford to have his deck contain more than 40 cards but 51 is way too many. The Blessings of the Nile, Elemental Discharge, and Dancing Fairies can go. I don't think that Skull-Mark Ladybug fits with this deck quite as well as it seems, since it's going to be very difficult to get a heal out of it while you have a Fire Princess on the field. (Nimble Momonga on the other hand thins your deck and provides more healing and stalling.) If you want, you can change out some of the Souls of the Pure for more Goblin Thieves. Some more cards you can add would be revival cards, SanganUFO Turtle, and some Continuous defensive cards like Astral Barrier, Messenger of Peace, or Mirror Wall. The first works with Numinous Healer and Nutrient Z, Messenger of Peace makes attacking nearly impossible for your opponent (which sounds amazing but kills your Draining Shield), and Mirror Wall gets to stay up longer due to the heals and possibly open the opponent up for a direct attack. If Enzo could get out multiple Fire Princesses and then play a few healing cards, he could be a force to be reckoned with.

Score: 4/10

Next up will be one of the game's several Fusion duelists.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's too cold for any of this today. What the fuck, meteorologists.

Tagforce 1 #18: Faty

unknown.png

You can find this person hanging out at the Ra Yellow dorm in the mornings. You know, because he's Ra Yellow and that's where they tend to be. In the afternoon he spends his time at the base of the Cliff, completely alone except for the short time that Bastion joins him. There are a few duelists in this game who insist that they're manly to an almost comical extent, and this is perhaps the first of the ones I'll be going over.

unknown.png

All women do is not this, steal, eat hot chip, cheat, and lie.

Another thing that he does is talk about his role model, and he thinks you should meet said role model. Who is his role model, you ask? Well, uh, he doesn't say. It's most likely either Zane or Bastion, but it could also be Jaden. Personally, I think it's Pharaoh the Cat. If I had a role model, it would be Pharaoh the Cat. And then there's his line where he rejects your sandwich.

unknown.png

The next time someone offers me a sandwich, I should also make karate noises at them. Maybe it will go well. Maybe I will instantly die.

I suppose I should also address the elephant in the room. That elephant being, WHAT IN THE MOTHER OF FUCK IS THIS DUDE'S NAME? In the Japanese version he's Toshihisa Furusawa, and I guess that they just translated it into a random name. As it turns out, Faty is an actual name, but it's not a very common name. I'd be fine with that if the name wasn't Faty. It sounds like we're fat-shaming someone over here.

Overall, this is a serviceable character. I wish we knew who his role model is, and that his name was... not that. But he has a few silly lines and his deck is interesting enough.

This is a vanilla fusion deck. The goal is to get Heart of the Underdog to draw up a bunch of monsters, then use Fusion Gate to put them all together. In theory, this sounds pretty good, but most of the time he just pulls fusion materials that don't end up going together, and his biggest threat tends to be his 1600 Blue-Winged Crown. And even when things go well for him, his Fusions aren't that strong either. Finally, if things do go well, he can either boost his monsters with Fusion Weapon or immunize them from Spells with Non-Spellcasting Area. But he can't do both, since Fusion Weapon is a Spell. He also cannot Fusion Summon Mavelus as he only has one of the Fusion Materials for it.

While it is pretty neat to make a deck with all of the Winged Beast Fusions in the game, there aren't any gameplay advantages to doing so. He doesn't run Icarus Attack or anything else that supports this monster type. He could take out the Tyhones for an Icarus Attack, and that would also reduce his deck size to 40 cards. He could also switch out the Curses of Anubis for copies 2 and 3, because like I said with Deloge earlier, if this card was good then you would see more people running Windstorm of Etaqua instead. He could even run Return from the Different Dimension pr the incredibly broken Dimension Fusion to get his Fusion materials back to remake some Fusions. Maybe even King of the Swamp so he gets a lot of flexibility in his Fusion summons, or Terraforming since he needs Fusion Gate in order for his deck to function at all.

I have a few Fusion decks made, but they all fit the other Fusion duelists in this game more than they do with this guy. The problem is that Winged Beasts don't really do anything yet. They got Icarus Attack, Sacred Crane, and that's pretty much it. There's also Harpies but they're still in the stage where they get screwed over by their monsters all having the same name all the time.

Score: 3/10

The next character will be someone whose decklist I haven't actually acquired yet in game. It may be possible for me to duel this guy 10 times to get it, but I can only duel him once a day (and it took me a while to find him) so I may end up doing the next post without a decklist image.

Edited by A Billion Cheetahs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...