Beside the usual show, the GeekFist crew created and celebrated their very own holiday called Troll-Mas. The idea was to give other members of the crew something related to their interests but totally unexpected. OmegaZed took on the challenge by delivering Ninjago figures to the crew, but Krismas countered with Redakai, trolling with it not once but twice in the same episode! Needless to be said, the special events will continue and Troll-imania has been born! Details on that will be coming soon.

So for your listening pleasure ladies and gentlemen and mutants, here is the download link for the full episode! Click it and be sure to like us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter!

The episode is available here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekfist/Geekfist_2011_Award_Show.mp3
We’ll post a full listing of the awards given out soon!

In light of keeping the series fresh through it’s countless number of sequels and reboots, Spike holds a number of unique treats that would put a smile on the face of the most devoted fans of the series. Opening theme song “Cha La (Head Cha La)”, from the original Japanese anime, was chosen for the opening sequence of the game and if that wasn’t cool enough, is accompanied by probably the best opening animation sequences ever done in the series featuring modern style visuals fans have been clamoring for since the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Kai. Your treated to battles scenes of some familiar face such as Goku, Vejita, Krillin, Trunks, Gotenks as they do battle with iconic villains Freiza, Kid Buu, Omega Shenron and even movie character Hirudegarn makes an appearance. The most noticeable aspect of this cinematic is the first time introduction of characters “Saiyan Hero” & “Saiyan Elite” from Dragon Ball Heroes, a Japanese only arcade game.

A main storyline is also included in addition to Hero mode, here you will play through the normal story of DBZ and spans into the GT saga as well this time around. The newest and best feature here are the epic boss battles to be had along the way, in style of Naruo Ninja Storm 2, players are treated to large scale battles against the staple villains and movie villains in a variety of speedy chase sequences, button mashing power struggles and QuickTime events that takes the feel of Toriyama’s world closer to home like never before. This is easily the best part about the game as a whole, it’s fresh, new and very well executed.

Sadly this is where the good news ends for U. Tenkaichi. The new battle system incorporated can barely be considered anything battle-esque, the fun of combo’s and melee have been heavily toned down in favor of a 50/50, or rock paper scissors, system that cuts any combo off after 4 consecutive melee button presses for a 2 option guessing game that gives the opponent a chance to break away. This system, all the well very cool in cinematic, will run tired since it is done every single time a string of attacks are made. There are only 2 options, strings these attacks into the guessing system, or use a heavy attack which auto breaks any guard only so you can go back to using the first option yet again. There are so many breaks in the action in favor of cinematic, after a while it doesn’t feel like your really doing anything when only one button press will determine the next 12 or so hits.

This is where the game falls short of actually being true to the spirit of Dragon Ball. Too much of a heavy focus on cinematic has cut the actual hands on fighting experience to a minimum, make this game more of a movie than something that’s playable. All super attacks are auto aimed, leaving no real sense of accomplishment outside of guessing correct for the landing, or out mashing your opponent if they choose the intercept with an attack of their own. The roster also suffers from a major chunk of serious holes that can be noticed by even novice fans. The saga reaches up to GT, yet are missing major key playable characters from the era such as Pan, Kid Goku, Super 17, Bebi, Bebi Vejita and both SSJ4 forms of Goku and Vejita. What’s so confusing is the inclusion of SSJ4 Gojita and Omega Shenron being recognized and playable. The list from the Z arc and those missing is massive so I won’t even bother with the details to avoid further tears.

Visuals: 9 Absolutely amazing job done by Spike. Everything about this game is simply visually stunning and vibrant. Never before has a Dragon Ball game come so close to life until now.

Sound: 8 All the original Japanese and even DBZ Kai voice actors have assisted in keeping their roles alive. The soundtrack is the best to date and the ability to select different arcs of music during VS play is a plus. Melee clashes and Ki blasts sound crisp and appropriate where needed.

Gameplay: 5 The fighting was left out of this “fighter” in exchange for a more cinematic experience, making it difficult to appreciate the story in-between the larger battles. The lack of balance makes the appeal of the game short lived and straight robotic in longer sessions. The mechanics leave online play almost completely non-responsive when it comes to reversals, which wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t forced on you so much.

Replay: 5 Once your done, there is very little chance you’ll want to revisit anything outside of the boss battles.

Some serious potential has been shown here by Spike. Not exactly the worst way to leave an impression, but due to lack of actual fighting when that’s what Dragon Ball is truly about, it remains that much further from being anywhere near the best.

Rating: 6.5

As you’re reading this far, you’re probably wondering what we thought of the convention as a whole. For your listening pleasure, we compiled the full interview set into one glorious download with a nifty little edition at the end. With our last bit of energy, we sat down and had a roundtable discussion about our feelings and opinions of the convention. The full episode of our New York Comic Con/ Anime Festival coverage is now ready for your listening pleasure, so sit back, get some popcorn and drink ready and listen to, in its entirety our epic two plus hour Special Edition Episode of GeekFist Radio.

That episode can be listened to and downloaded here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekfist/Geekfist_New_York_Comic-con.mp3

We’re not done there fans, as we’ll be returning to our regular podcasting schedule with a Post Comic Con wrap up, a look at what GeekFist thinks of Batman: Arkham City plus a surprise advance insight to Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and we finally weigh in on our thoughts of the many comic book related events that are coming to a close like Fear Itself, Spider-Island and we review DC’s New 52! We’ve recharged our batteries and are now back to full rhythm. All that in the next episode which will be up in just a few days!

GeekFist Radio, we’re in there!

It’s a scary time for any duelist as one never knows if the deck they currently play may be unplayable. It’s never fun to know a deck you have fine-tuned and built up to a certain level is knocked back down to nearly nothing. Unfortunately balance is the name of the game when it comes to these restrictions and bans, and it also helps to promote new themes and new cards.

With that being said, TCG players have had a lot to look at and decide, and with the recent YCS Toronto under the new format’s belt, trends will definitely emerge. Firstly, let’s take a look at what September 1st brought to the game.

BANNED:

Fishborg Blaster

Mind Master

Both of these cards led to really fast and potentially deadly one-turn kills. While the decks they were played in (Fish and Psychics respectively) didn’t see a whole lot of competitive play, Konami knows one-turn kill decks can cripple any card game and took a necessary step in banning two major causes of two really deadly One Turn Kill decks.

Giant Trunade

This one caused me to ruffle my eyebrows a bit as I didn’t see why this had to get banned. After some thought, and the return of a card that we’ll discuss further down, Giant Trunade didn’t punish players enough. It was easy to play around Giant Trunade, especially the person who played the card itself. It’s ban means fewer instances where people will set a monster or summon a powerful monster and sit behind powerful magic and traps. That is no longer the case, as we’ll soon see further down the list.

Royal Oppression

This is the only ban I disagree with. Royal Oppression kept a lot of decks in check and gave some skill to the format. It’s ban, and the return of one of the most feared cards in the game and the new unrestricted of another boss monster lead me to question this move and wonder just what was Konami thinking when they decided to ban this card. It offers nothing to any deck-type and the only reason I see it banned is that nearly every deck can play it. Whether or not that was a bad thing for the game remains to be seen, and I see this card returning come March 1st.

RESTRICTED TO ONE:

Formula Synchron

Legendary Six Samurai Shi-En

T. G. Hyper Librarian

All these Synchro Monsters created a ton of advantage when summoned. Legendary Six Samurai could be created and summoned on a Six Samurai player’s first turn and the control he brought from that turn on was outright annoying. Hyper Librarian and Formula Synchron created a too-easy to pull off draw combo that definitely needed to be curbed. All around these were smart decisions and I completely agree with these. They will still see play as they are fantastic and decently powered synchro monsters, but they are no longer abusable.

Black Luster Soldier ~ Envoy of the Beginning

The biggest, baddest boss monster ever printed (yes I do find him worse than Chaos Emperor Dragon) is now back! In the OCG there was a change in how monsters can pull off their effects when summoned so that ruling makes this monster keep his power in check. We have yet to determine if the TCG will follow that ruling, and during YCS Toronto that ruling was nowhere to be found. We’re in for a very long six months of this guy being slammed onto the field to end games. Whole articles alone could be written about the power of this card, so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what his return to the game will do in future events. I can’t say whether I disagree or agree with his return, but it did bring a smile to my face as he returns to a game where so much has changed and other boss monsters exist, that it’s akin to Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Debris Dragon

Lonefire Blossom

These two cards were key parts to the Plant Synchro engine and were completely abused and overused to the point that most tournaments saw nothing but Plant Synchro decks being played. These restrictions curb the power of the deck alongside the restrictions we mentioned earlier regarding Hyper Librarian and Formula Synchron, so the deck is still playable but is nowhere near as powerful as it once was. Of course with the fact that a Plant deck won in YCS Toronto recently, one never knows.

Heavy Storm

Wow.

Simply wow. One of the most devastating spell cards printed makes a return to punish a backrow heavy format that we have had for the past year if not more. This card alone makes players hold onto cards in fear of losing them all, so we’ll definitely see a shift in what was a trap card heavy format into a more monster orientated one.

Pot of Avarice

A necessary restriction as it created too much advantage given the decktypes the game has geared itself towards. It also curbed the immense power the Plant Synchro deck had, so another good call from Konami.

Primal Seed

Nobody really used this card when it was originally printed, and I don’t think anyone will use it now but it is a pretty decent card with an abusable effect if played in the right deck.

Shien’s Smoke Signal

The Six Samurai specific Reinforcement of the Army made it all too easy for their themed Synchro to be summoned on the first turn that this card needed to go to one copy per deck.

LIMITED TO TWO:

Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier

With Fishborg Blaster banned, the One Turn Kill Dewloren deck isn’t a threat anymore, so back to two he goes. He’s still abusable, but I’ll leave that to Fish and Water deck duelists to figure that one out.

Necro Gardna

I don’t even know why this card is back at two considering a unrestricted of a particular card and. I don’t like too many stall cards in any format, but this card and another one made very little sense to me.

Summoner Monk

Purely done to promote Xyz summons, so it’ll remain to be seen if this card will see abuse in decks. In the TCG I definitely see it being abused given some of our American exclusive cards like Reborn Tengu and Rose Warrior Of Revenge for starters.

Tragoedia

Another card unrestricted from one copy to two to help promote the Xyz theme. Whatever Konami, whatever.

Destiny Draw

Really now? Do we need more draw power? I guess nobody played the Hero deck enough that this card needed to come back to two copies per deck. We’ll definitely see Absolute Zero decks take off now that their best draw card is back at a decent playable amount per deck.

Swords of Revealing Light

Hooray for more stall? Not so says Konami as they smartly unrestricted a destruction card that makes playing two copies of this card a dumb move.

Call of the Haunted

With Giant Trunade gone and Heavy Storm back and Mystical Space Typhoon unrestricted to three copies per deck, Call of the Haunted at two per deck seems like an experiment more than anything. It’ll be interesting to see what decks can actually take advantage of this card at two.

Mind Crush

Hoo-boy am I going to love this card at two. Even moreso when the upcoming Dark World Structure deck comes out!

NO LONGER RESTRICTED:

Judgment Dragon

I’m not even going to comment on this being allowed at three per deck. That’s how bad it is. However not a peep was heard from the fabled Lightsworn deck during YCS Toronto, and that is either a sign of the times, or the fact that people just didn’t play the deck.

Spirit Reaper

More stall! Yay!

Megamorph

Nobody used this card, but it gives the Morphtronic deck a much needed boost of support. Morphtronics also work pretty well with Xyz monsters as well!

Mystical Space Typhoon

A format with three of these, a Heavy Storm and the return of Black Luster Soldier ~ Envoy of the Beginning? I’m getting flashbacks from when the Invasion of Chaos booster set was released!

Overload Fusion

It’ll be nice to see if anyone makes the Overload Cyber Dragon Fusion based deck. It probably won’t happen as it’s not that good in competitive play.

Gravity Bind

With Xyz being unaffected by this card, unrestricting it means players will have to Xyz summon as an option to get around it.

Icarus Attack

As a Blackwing player, you cannot imagine the smile that is on my face with this card.

There you have it. The first YCS under these ban and restrictions has come and gone and people realize now what they may have to deal with during local tournaments, regionals and the next YCS which will be in Ohio.

Tune in next week, where I’ll update an old favorite and have some cool announcements for the Dueling Domain!

Fancy having your own design featured at New York Comic Con?

Of course you do, so you need to get your concentration hat on and read these words:

Your task is to create your very own, highly original, comic book character. Superhero or villain. Splendidly powerful, embarrassingly weak, or just quite good at chess. Give them skills you’ve always wanted or defects you’ve always dreaded. Give them a snappy name and stick them on a t-shirt.

What would your character wear? What’s their calling card, weaponry or gadgetry? What’s their story? What are they fighting for or against? It’s up to you to answer these questions.

We’ll then whip the winning design into a limited edition, official RedBubble/NYCC 2011 t-shirt to be featured, praised, discussed and given to hundreds of adoring comic fans in New York this October.

Monsters: 15

[2x] Dragunity Aklys

[2x] Dragunity Arma Mystletainn

[3x] Dragunity Dux

[3x] Dragunity Legionnaire

[3x] Dragunity Phalanx

[2x] Effect Veiler

Spells: 16

[1x] Book of Moon

[2x] Cards of Consonance

[1x] Dark Hole

[3x] Dragon Ravine

[1x] Giant Trunade

[1x] Monster Reborn

[2x] Mystical Space Typhoon

[2x] Pot of Avarice

[3x] Terraforming

Traps: 10

[2x] Bottomless Trap Hole

[2x] Dimensional Prison

[2x] Icarus Attack

[1x] Mirror Force

[1x] Solemn Judgment

[2x] Solemn Warning

The Dragunity Legion structure deck introduced the Dragon Ravine field spell card and it is perhaps one of the most powerful thematic field spells to be printed in a long time. It searches out whatever Dragunity you may need to add to your hand, or it lets you mill either Phalanx or Aklys to be comboed with Dux or Legionnaire making for many fantastic plays. The Dragunity deck loves opening hands that involve a Terraforming or Dragon Ravine, Dragunity Phalanx and Dragunity Dux in hand. Dux plus Phalanx leads into Dragunity Knight Vajrayana which in turn leads into either Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, Scrap Dragon or any other powerful 8 star synchro monsters. The Legionnaire-Aklys combo turns one monster into an Icarus Attack on legs, let alone if you have Icarus Attack set you can potentially wipe out four of your opponent’s cards for just two of yours. The vast destruction plays this deck can amass are numerous and plentiful.

Speak Softly and Carry A Big Sword

I’m certain a surprising card that some of you may see is the inclusion of Mystletainn. I prefer using it over other Dragunity monsters simply because in my opinion, so many people are playing Effect Veiler (as am I in this deck) and Mystletainn is a good answer to that card. For example, lets say that you summon Dragunity Dux and activate its effect upon summoning and your opponent activates Effect Veiler. Suddenly you’re stuck with a Dux sitting alone and vulnerable. Mystletainn fixes all that, letting you send your Dux to the graveyard to special summon Mystletainn and still let you get your preferred 8 star Synchro on the field.

Search The Earth. Win.

In the spell department we’ve maxed out on 3 copies of Dragon Ravine and Terraforming respectively. The field spell is the deck’s most important tool allowing you to set up your big Synchro plays on a consistent basis. Cards of Consonance is a great card to draw into the deck, and Pot of Avarice lets you recycle your spent Dux and Legionnaire and even Vajrayana (remember that Synchro monsters return to the Extra Deck when bounced from the field or when Pot of Avarice is used to bring them back) for future use and lets you shuffle your deck and give you brand new cards.

Greed Is Good

The trap lineup always seems to be a big debate for Dragunity players. Some would rather play Icarus Attack and others prefer Trap Stun. Icarus Attack is in my opinion too good not to run and when combined with Legionnaire as mentioned above, it is a devastating play that may just swing the game in your favor when playing. Solemn Warning is approaching a huge trade and sale value and some players may utilize Seven Tools of the Bandit instead as an alternative option.

Blow Stuff Up

I’ve left out the  Side Deck and Extra Deck purposely as these are the areas that differ from player to player. Right now the best I can tell you is try what works against your expected local meta-game and experiment with a lot of practice and adaptation. 3 copies of Dragunity Knight Vajrayana are definitely considered a staple portion of the Extra Deck as well as Trident Dragion for its One-Turn Kill opportunity. Experiment and find what works best for you if you are looking to play Dragunity in the near future.

Until next time, keep dueling and keep having fun!

If these terms seem unfamiliar to you, don’t fret. While we’re here for the fans of the game, new players can look forward to insight on deck types, card and set reviews and a tournament overview or two. We’ll definitely look into the decks currently being played, what is upcoming for the TCG and may take in submissions for deck building. The Yu-Gi-Oh! card game covers a wide base of venues from deck building to trading to the tournament scene and even the casual duels amongst friends. We’ll have something for every kind of duelist no matter where you stand in the card game.

A super hero for all ages

Currently, I play at various local tournaments and command a wide variety of decks. I am a long time fan of Blackwings, have currently taken up the Dragunity mantle and still play Gravekeeper’s and Plant Chaos. My favorite monster type is Spellcasters and I’m a big fan of Dark Magician and his bag of tricks. Heck, my first deck was Fiend/Spellcaster Beat Down which evolved into a straight Dark Magician Deck and eventually into Spellcaster Chaos. The game has definitely changed much with a stricter emphasis on themed deck types and as such, we as players have had to adapt as well. No longer are decks just a mish-mosh of the most powerful cards thrown together into a 40 card ordeal. Now we have to support our theme, with clearer emphasis on dedicated cards to protect the monsters we have chosen to utilize in this game.

Here at CLG, we call him Flaps McSparkles

As the game continues to evolve, so to do we as players. Come along for the ride as we rev it up and get our game on with the heart of the cards. Next week we’ll dive into the power of the Dragunity Deck! Until next time, keep having fun and keep dueling!

A glimpse of the future! EXCEED MONSTERS!

This week, the Geek Fist boys talk about the impending Japanese invasion that happens every few years known as Pokemon, the big Thundercats 2011 cartoon trailer, their experience in playing the Yakuza 4 demo. We also talk about the godliness that was 90s television and how it is making it’s a huge comeback online and in small fan groups. And we take a moment to remember Dwayne McDuffy and the impact he had on the comic industry.

- * Pokemon

- *Thundercats

- *Return of 90s Nickelodeon