Yuki: Thoughts, rambles and Discussions
Wixoss
But let's not dwell on that fact.
So, looking at recent tournaments, both in Japan and Singapore, people seem to be trying out Yuki after the release of WX11, which is great, but Yuki doesn't seem to be having that great of a sucess rate. It doesn't help that immediately after WX11's release came the Movie TDs, leading to Tama being overplayed by everyone yet again. :/
Yuki, as it seems, is thought by many people to be a single focused deck with only one standard build with Labyrinths, as seeing everyone play the same few cards over and over again in every Yuki deck reflects that. Initially, that was how I thought Yuki had to be played too, she seemed to be a seperate entity from Iona and had her own specific style of play.
The over-used combo which are these 3 cards are seen in every single Yuki deck, and most of the time 4 copies of each are run. Sure, it is a broken combo where after attacking on your turn, Kinkaku ups all Labyrinths leading to Gojuu being unaffected by all of your opponent's effects on his turn. Then when your opponent SIGNI attacks, all you do is just down the Pishato you upped with Kinkaku's effect, rearrange your field. Afterwards, you ener-charge 1 by Yuki, Pure White Miko's constant ability, and use that ener to pay off for Gojuu's effect and return 1 of your opponent's SIGNI to hand. And just rinse and repeat until you win.
A large flaw in this combo is realized by many players after playing is on your attack phase, as Gojuu is only unaffected by your opponent's effects on your opponent's turn, so if by ARTS of Lifeburst, Gojuu is removed from the field on your turn, this strategy falls apart, but thank god for Summon Labyrinth am I right? What's even better? After rearranging your field, you let Pishato get banished by an opponent's SIGNI, as it leaves the field on your opponent's turn, you pay 2 and who do you call out? Towerb or Tajmaha and just rearrange your field, moving Gojuu, and paying another ener to bounce another of your opponent's SIGNI.
Yeah yeah, this combo is great and all, and to make matters worse, Yuki gets an overpowered spell that just destroys decks - Labyrinth Romance. Say how does removing 3 SIGNI for 3 Ener and a possible chance of opening 3 holes on your opponent's field sound? Great right? Exactly, this card is all that and more. Using it when your opponent is level 3 or lesser is all the more advantageous as your opponent cannot call out SIGNI that are higher level than his current level, restricting the number of SIGNI your opponent can call out. The lifeburst is Overpowered too BTW, in case you haven't noticed.
EDIT:
On hindsight though, standard Yuki does have it set of problems. Firstly, a weak early game. Which SIGNI do you want to play onto the field on your first turn? Towerb? But it can be saved to combo with Gojuu. Servants, I guess so? Also, I don't know if it is due to the lack of Mirurun players, but Labyrinth Romance is horrible against Mirurun. Keeping that spell in hand only for them to use it against you for free when they grow level 4? Just having that card in your trash or deck doesn't help you. And Yuki, while it being a white deck, lacks the search most other white decks have. Triumph doesn't search White SIGNI, making it unusable in standard Yuki decks, Hiunka relies on chance, and with you playing spells and servants, it may miss, Torchen Whip is great but, how are you gonna pay of that black ener in your ener zone? Pinch Defense is one but what others? The only reliable search that comes to mind is Lourve + Yuki's Exceed 2. And even then, it is really slow. Sure, you can tech in Pyramid, but what would her lifeburst do for you? Nothing.
Getting on to my main point, standard Yuki is really strong, but to me, it doesn't seem right somehow. Iona caught my eye due to it being one of the first LRIGs to balance 2 colours, the other being Yuzuki (which I would have played if so many others weren't playing it already so....). As with Duel Masters, double colour decks are really cool and require a lot of thinking and strategizing especially during the deck building phase. Hey, this card is really strong, lets put 4 copies of it in. Hey wait, that screws up my colour ratios, will I have enough white ener if I remove this?
With the movie TDs being released and Yuki, Miko of Fortunate Love being released. I thought that hey, this card could be what gets people back to playing Black and White hybrid decks. The possible 1 colorless grow cost is great and it has saved me so many times when my opponent attempts to Ener starve me. (haha, in your face). While she does in a sense, force you to play poison fang SIGNIs, it actually works to your favour. An ideal field would be 2 Poison Fang and a Labyrinth SIGNI.
This places your 12000 power SIGNI at 13000 power instead, and it is really annoying when that +1000 power makes it impossible to remove. Also, with the power minus only being on your turn, your opponent cannot abuse the fact that calling a SIGNI with 2000 or less power from hand is equivalent to another Ener Charge. This Yuki is really really great and I hope to see more usage of it.
However, it seems that it is overshadowed by the ever popular Tamayorihime. This makes me disappointed, I truly am. Black and White hybrid Yuki works so well. Let me explain why.
In making a hybrid deck, you give Torchen Whip a much more effective usage. In your standard Yuki deck, you can only utilize the second effect of Torchen Whip, and not even that well. How many down your own SIGNI effects do you see in standard decks? Any? Nope? I don't think so. now think back to your old Iona builds for us Iona layers. Any familiar names come to mind? Triumph, yes yes, Pyramid, yes, Drei=Capsule, go on, Possibly Palbek or Marsface Uh-huh.
A Yuki hyrbid deck also solves many of the problems the standard Iona deck had in the past. Calling out 2 Triumphs on turn 1 to prevent your opponent from hitting your life cloth is great and all, but what were you going to do with 2 white Ener in the early game in the past? Nothing, now that triumph that helped you search out your Aztec and Doronjo pieces, that stopped 2 of your opponent's SIGNI attacks is now ener that can be used to grow, to pay costs for effects, for better ARTs like Summon Labyrinth which we didn't have in the past.
Remember Iona, Pale/Maiden? Yup, her? Her constant of making your opponent attack if possible was almost always played around with self-down cards such as Valkyrie, Nakirun, GRB, Shark Lance, and just not giving you Ener and ener starving you. An Iona, ener-starved, that should never happen. But guess what? Ginkaku and Kinkaku, the cross pair, saves you that problem. As on cross, on the next main phase, all your opponent's SIGNI lose their abilities, which means that the SIGNI with self-down abilities are unable to do so. Thus the only way for your opponent to ener starve you is to not call SIGNIs to attack or call SIGNIs with low power which you can easily clear, which is great.
On the bright side, with the reveal of this new card in WX12, a Labyrinth Resona that requires a Black and White SIGNI to be played encourages me with the idea that on Takara Tomy's side too, they want to see Iona/Yuki as more of a Black and White hybrid deck than another Tawil Tama or Sashe (no offence to these decks). But then again, overall Takara Tomy is pushing for more mixed colours deck and since Iona already has decent support as a mixed colour deck... (Haiz...). Since Umr seems to be becoming black and white too :/
All in all, these are just my personal opinions and rants, so please do not take anything I say to heart. If you are a dedicated Yuki player who uses the standard Yuki build, please do not get offended, I don't have anything against you or your deck, in fact, I have the very same deck too. It's just I want to see more of a variety of decks since Yuki is such a variable LRIG, and does not need to be constrained in the standard way of thinking.
Leggo Scrubs~
MakiBestGirl Signing Off~
P.S. Since I'm more or less have some free time now, I'll probably finish up some of my overdue articles which will come out soon. They include: Iona deck tech part 2 and a review of WX11 cards. Yes, I have been slacking off, I'm sorry (シ_ _)シ.
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