Asia Championship 2012 Plus is here!

Here is our first post since the new ban list! And what better to start with then info on the final official tournament of the year, the Asia Championship 2012 Plus! 

For new TCG readers info, Asia Championship Plus is a team tournament where you group up in 3 and play against other teams. Whats so special about this tournament is that you share the same ban list! Meaning 3 MSTs / 1 Monster Reborn / 1 Heavy Storm among the whole team.

So enough with the recap, Singapore's qualifiers is coming up on 21 October, so thats in another 5 weeks time. Whats so special this time round is there was a sudden announcement that all promotional cards which were previously banned (What we call Asia format previously, where only OCG cards released officially in the Asia region excluding Japan can be used) are now allowed.

That means all your Shonen jump / magazine / limited edition packs promos can now all be used! The only remaining restriction is Duel Terminal 3 and onwards cannot be used. That opens doors to cards like Airman, Rai-Ou, Gorz, Shock Ruler and lots more! Strategies will have to be rethought and i'm personally quite interested to see what everyone will come up with.

In the mean time, so what decks do I think will be played. Here are some of my thoughts, though of course the order of team leader and their members can be switched around.

Team Leader

Heroes are definite. I expect to see several teams with a Hero player in their midst, replacing the previous Rabbit Laggia player as the trap heavy player, which is why I place this as the team leader. Sorry TCG, Rabbit Laggia just isnt as useful since we do not have access to Tour Guides yet. Of course I could be wrong and people could play the Arrive build or even the Arrive Dark build which are less trap heavy and appear with Rabbit as well. However these are less stable so I expect the standard Hero Beat to be the deck of choice.

Team Member A

 

With the team leader being the defensive player, you of course need an offensive player. Team member A should be able to swarm the field quickly to take over other team's team leader type decks. With that, the deck to be used is Agents! With the demise of Inzektors, I expect this deck to be seen very often. This deck uses alternative "traps" through cards like Orange Light and Honest and do not compete with the Hero team mate for traps so this will be seen alot. Armed with quick special summoning abilities while being relatively unaffected by the banlist, this is a deck to watch out for.

Another deck expected to be used by this team member A is also Mermail. This deck is like another Gladiator Beast deck in my opinion. It has similar toolbox capabilities, being able to handle threats on the field with relative ease. Through Megalo, they also gain access to Number 11: Big Eye, stealing away their oponent's boss monsters easily. Meanwhile, it also fulfils the standard requirement of alternative "traps" through their exclusive equip Kraken. Even its special summoning trap Abyssphere functions as a trap by allowing you to special summon one of the Mermails and discard Atlantean Armed Solder or Marksman to clear field threats.

Alternatives for this team member can be decks such as Hanzo Hieratics, which also has its own additional trap that can be used. The deck is still relatively stable even after the ban list, as long as the focus is not heavy on swarming the field. With a steady supply of rank 6, giving it access to cards like Photon Strike Bouncer, this deck is to be considered as well.

Team Member B

Last but not least, team member B requires a deck which is a mix of the above 2. The deck needs its own minimal defences left over from the Team Leader, yet needs to have its own set of tricks to be able to take on other players team leader type decks, while being able to compete in speed with the team member A type decks.

The best choices for jack of all trades in my opinion is my favourite Karakuri! Several builds are available to be used for Karakuris but the best build for this team format will be the pure Karakuri Cosmos build (soon to be released lol) or the Geargia Karakuri build. The Geargia build is for the combo player which also nicely handles its biggest threat Rai-ou, while helping you gain speed to quickly take out your opponents. My personal choice (if I DID join this time and gave up judging lol) would be the Cosmos build, seeing how it does not relatively takes out most of the decks featured here today either single handledly (Agents, Mermail) or at least keeps them in control to prevent them from doing multiple stunts (Heroes, Hieratics). Though not having access to Naturia Beast is not as optimal for the deck but then again, the decks above (save for Heroes) have little trouble taking out Naturia Beast anyway so Beast was never the key here.

Next choice here is Gadgets! (No im not trying to recommend 2 machine decks in a row lol) This deck is still good here, with several players opting to throw in Double Summon into the deck to replace the reduced by 1 Offering. Especially with Shock Ruler being thrown into the mix, this is another deck to consider to play. The only problem is Tinplate Goldfish being unavailable to them so this deck is running at less then optimal speeds.

Last but not least is Dark Worlds and Six Samurai. With access to No 22: Fran Ken, this deck is has more options then ever. Further more, it is the only deck now that can make good use of Skill Drain, which gives this deck another choice here. However I never really liked this deck due to speed issues, and if the staple traps are with the team leader type deck, Dark World may not be as suitable this time. Six Samurai has the flip side of the problem where it has speed and can easily flood the field while maintaining access to warrior specific exceeds. However, this deck does not have any real traps that can help them out once the staple traps are taken away from them.

And thats the end of my very long rant. These are just some of my opinions though so everyone may think differently on their deck choices. Is everyone in Asia territories ready for your Asia Plus tournament? And are any of your decks nicely split up within your team like above?