Was this month’s points update what you were expecting? If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find the change log right here. There’s been a lot of chatter about the update and we wanted to take some time to answer some of the more common questions about the changes and how the numbers got where they are. Let’s begin!

Q: Why didn’t Radiant Typhoon Vision get any points while Rescue-ACE Impulse did?
A: It’s a matter of what people were playing and not playing in the Deck Lists we have access to. In the data we have, Impulse is all over the place but Vision is almost exclusively used by Radiant Typhoon, which is its home. The fact that this question is coming up at all means there must be a lot of Genesys play going on that we aren’t seeing – which is good! The more people are playing, the better. But if you want your gameplay to affect the overall format, we need to see those Deck Lists and tournament results. #YGOGenesys

Q: How did you come up with the 11/11/33 point spread for Vanquish Soul?
A: The main goals for the Vanquish Soul adjustments were to reduce Hollie Sue’s outsized impact on Duels, especially turn 1 of Duels and to keep her away from Ash Blossom while making sure that Vanquish Soul Decks that look more like the AGOV-era version stay legal. We wanted running more than 1 Hollie Sue to disrupt the basic foundation of the Deck or at least make players do something strange like go all in on Vanquish Soul, Start! with lower counts of Razen for instance. The set of numbers that both accomplishes this goal and is, we think, the easiest to understand and work with while deck building is 11/11/33. (But remember, nothing’s permanent.)

If you run 3/3/1 of Razen/Jiaolong/Hollie Sue, that’s 99 and you get to keep the band together, minus Ash Blossom, et al. But you can also skip Hollie Sue completely and run 3/2/3 of Razen/Jiaolong/Ash Blossom for 100 and keep the advantage of having Ash in your Deck while most other Decks aren’t running it or considering it in their lines of play. This is akin to what people were playing after Jiaolong’s release. Other permutations are also possible, and the Vanquish Soul cards are still very powerful and easy to pull out of your Deck, so we expect Vanquish Soul to still be a strong Deck.

Q: Why didn’t Seventh Tachyon get any points?
A: The short answer is that it costs you a card in hand, at least 1 Extra Deck slot, and locks you into Xyz on resolution, the combination of which made it inconvenient for general use. Being limited to just one type of strategy (Xyz) makes it hard to reach the point where it would justify adding points to it, even though it’s strong and casts a wide net.

For the long answer, let’s take a look at the Type searchers, whose role Seventh Tachyon usurps in the Decks that can play it.

Reinforcement of the Army/Fire Formation – Tenki/Fossil Dig/Emergency Teleport are all 35 as of the new update. Gallant Granite and Infernal Flame Banshee are 33. Bonfire is also 33, same as Banshee. Nightmare Apprentice dropped from 40 to 20, and Cynet Mining is 0. Why is Cynet Mining 0? It’s not because Link Monsters aren’t allowed, it’s because it costs you a discard to use. Nightmare Apprentice costs a discard as well but was priced at the same rate as the other Type searchers because it’s effectively free due to being on an Illusion monster you get to keep and wall up with even if something goes wrong. We lowered it more than the other Spells on this list because we didn’t think the prior points properly weighted the fact that there was a discard on it in the first place.

Seventh Tachyon casts a much wider net than Cynet Mining but also costs you Extra Deck space and an Xyz lock to do so. The more apt comparison would be Small World, whose net is even wider than Seventh Tachyon (and in fact is wider than all the cards we’re discussing combined). This card costs you a monster from hand, a bridge card still in your Deck, a significant amount of brain power, and 0 points. The cost/range/convenience of Seventh Tachyon places it squarely between Cynet Mining and Small World, both 0, and so its initial value was 0.

As for why it wasn’t increased, it’s just not being used enough. The Xyz Decks were largely underrepresented and it’s not seeing the widespread use of a Pot of Extravagance or even Upstart Goblin, which makes sense seeing as it locks you into Xyz and many Decks in the format focus on Fusion and Synchro. So right now, nothing we have shows it’s out of line.

With the points added on to Flying “C”, it’s possible that Xyz Decks could roar back and dominate the Pittsburgh Qualifiers and Invitational and push away Decks that can’t use Seventh Tachyon, but it’s difficult to imagine such a drastic shift. That said, this card and Small World are both cards we’re keeping an eye on.

Q: What did Beelze do to go 0 to 100?
A: The same old FTK trick it’s been up to for the last decade, ever since Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon released. Basically you Summon both monsters, use an effect to give Beelze to your opponent, then damage them in any way. This sets off an infinite loop of Beelze activating to gain ATK then Flare Metal Dragon dealing damage as a result, ending the game immediately. Since then, a couple of Synchro Dragons with the same type of burn effect have been released as well as Mind Castlin which makes the exchange much easier to do. One person brought the Blackwing version of the Deck with Black-Winged Assault Dragon to the Qualifiers and that was enough for it to get kicked out of the party.

Q: Why didn’t Dimension Shifter’s cost go up?
A: It’s barely getting played. It’s just that simple. We know there’s a lot of chatter about it, but it’s just not showing up in many Deck Lists, so far. And the general rule is that cards played a lot go up, cards not played a lot don’t. Even Exosister Decks are cutting it, and you’d think that would be the one place you always see it.

Q: What in the world happened to the Branded Extra Deck?
A: The Fallen & The Virtuous was going to become the best-in-slot generic Quick-Play removal Spell if we didn’t cost both it and the Extra Deck monsters that get you another copy of it (or another card in general). The numbers probably look intimidating for all you Branded fans out there, but we’ve made sure that Branded based strategies are still viable even if they don’t look like the Branded Decks you’re familiar with. We’re already seeing strategy guides being posted for the new point costs on how to make the Deck still work. As always, we’ll keep a close eye on this.

Q: Are you hiding in my walls?!
A: No, that’s weird. Happy Halloween!

And that’s all the time we have! YCS Pittsburgh is coming up soon and we hope to see you there!