Billy Brake broke pretty much every Dueling convention in the book on his way to his third YCS win in Dallas last weekend. Not only did he go with a 60-card Advanced Format Deck, the maximum size allowed as opposed to the 40-card minimum most competitors stick to, he also drafted a very specific Battle Pack 3: Monster League strategy that most players overlook or lack the confidence to commit to: the Level 3 monster rush Deck.

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When the dust settles from the Swiss rounds at this weekend’s YCS in Dallas and one round of playoff competition is completed, the 16 remaining Duelists in the tournament will assemble a brand new Deck on the spot in a Battle Pack 3: Monster League draft! Booster Draft is a relatively new part of Dueling, and many Duelists have never actually seen a real draft in progress. If you’re one of them, or if you have seen/played in drafts and you’re just looking for some tips or insight on different potential strategies in Battle Pack 3: Monster League draft, then have we got the videos for you! Read more…

One of the first things you learn when you start playing Sealed and Draft with Battle Pack 3: Monster League is the importance of battle outcome changers. There are a lot of monsters clustered together in the 1700-1900 ATK range, so even a small boost like Master Craftsman Gamil can mean the difference between victory and defeat in a given battle. And if you can force a trade off of one of your weaker battle outcome changers like Gamil or the 400 ATK boost from Skill Successor for one of their stronger outcome changers, say something in the 700+ range, then all the better. Even if you don’t win that particular battle, the next one is more likely to go your way because you’ve saved your better cards for it – essentially, losing one battle but giving yourself a better chance to win the war.

In the Advanced Format, you don’t see as much of this because most battle outcome changers are replaced with straight-up removal cards. Some Decks, like Bujin, make good use of battle outcome changers, but for the most part, Duelists try to prevent battles from happening instead of trying to win them. Duelists interested in the Yang Zing monsters introduced last week should endeavor to do the opposite. Read more…

At YCS Atlanta this past weekend, we had one of our reporters follow booster draft first timer Jono Ritzau through his draft, pick by pick, and record all of the results.  You can follow along and read all about it right here. In the end, it seemed as though inexperience got the best of Ritzau as he was eliminated in the first round of draft play. This is an especially valuable article to look at if you’ve never drafted before. Try looking at each of the pictures and deciding on what card you would pick out of the choices presented before you look to see what was actually chosen. Ask your friends what they would have chosen. Practice is the only way to build booster draft skills, and you can get a head start by doing this exercise with a real life draft from the first YCS to feature booster draft!

Duelists that make it to the Round of 16 in this weekend’s YCS in Atlanta will set aside their Advanced Format Decks to take on a new challenge never before seen in top level competition: Booster Draft! War of the Giants: Round 2 expands on Battle Pack 2: War of the Giants to offer an exciting and challenging new experience for Duelists everywhere, and if you want to take home the top prize and the accolades that go along with it, you’ll need to practice! Practice is, of course, the only thing that makes perfect, but today I’ll talk about a few game changing cards from the War of the Giants: Round 2 pack that you’ll need to know how to deal with (and how to use yourself!) if they come up in your draft. Read more…