DON'T FALL FOR THESE YU-GI-OH NOOB TRAPS!

Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/hellofresh_mbtyugio..., use my code MBTFREE, and receive one free breakfast item per box while subscription is active.
---
Edited by direYGO:
► / direygo
Affiliate Links and Discounts
►mbtyugioh.bio/
Patreon:
► / mbtyugioh
Twitter:
► / mbtyugioh
Twitch:
► / mbtyugioh
Discord:
► / discord
#YuGiOh #MBT #Stream

[@MBTYuGiOh]

Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/hellofresh_mbtyugioh6795, use my code MBTFREE, and receive one free breakfast item per box while subscription is active.

[@koojin9782]

mbt W get that bag💰

[@spinalspiral9901]

​@@koojin9782get off your knees lil bro

[@koojin9782]

NO!!!! it's okay try again and ill pretend i care

[@OlgaZuccati]

Fuck HelloFresh tbh

[@four-en-tee]

See, this is how i felt when i first read Exchange I was just like "oh, i can give them garbage in my hand" and didn't realize that ideally i shouldn't have garbage in my hand

[@kindklan8020]

Wait but you don't get to choose :( >:) but gold moon coin on the other hand >:)

[@dudegrey6608]

Exchange actually sees some side play in Goat.

[@xCorvus7x]

@@dudegrey6608 To steal your opponent's power spells, sure.

[@fadeleaf845]

In a similarly related way, cards like Card Trader, Reload, Magical Mallet and Lighten the Load. You shouldn't *consistently* have cards in hand you don't want to draw.

[@dudegrey6608]

@@fadeleaf845 Shout out to the really old Gadget decks that did run Card Trader. Joe Giolando actually has a profile for such a deck on his channel.

[@TrevorAllenMD]

I’ll never forget when I let Dzeeff convince me Myutant was next meta. It’s just Kozmo with negates right? So I bought it for like $150 pre sale, instead of $40 Virtual World… and to this day VW is topping YCSs.

[@grodon909]

Like, literally last weekend even.

[@VixYW]

Tbf, Myutant is way more fun to play than VW. I think you did the right thing regardless.

[@NoNameOrLife]

@@VixYW fun? are you even playing yu gi oh xD

[@lamiaprincess6371]

Yeah there was a good period of time when Myutant was being revealed that people were insanely high on it and all I could think about while this was happening was "Really? But we've already seen what a good archetype with a banish focus is, and its not Myutant" and lo and behold it took a long time for Myutant to end up being playable because of how much it was half a deck for.

[@vjgodlybang]

He should reimburse you honestly.

[@ljaquos]

I think the evaluation of Ash that is simply described as "You gotta!" is best laid out as like, Ash is not always the strongest hand trap. It rarely is actually, it is the least likely hand trap to end a turn on the spot., However, it is the MOST likely hand trap to have some level of relevance at some point in the game among the most matchups. Due to that, you gotta.

[@lemlem35]

I definitely think the Hiita point is good, giving your opponent a fire is generally a bad thing right now, but I 100% agree that because its VERY likely to be used makes it better than nearly any other option; stuff like Nibiru will very often just not be activated in a match

[@kindklan8020]

branded fusion chain ash blossom joyous spring? no response hmmmm

[@BrinkOfInfamy]

Honestly, I’ve found so many people get turn skipped by droll that it feels way more powerful than ash at this point. Sure, get your one search but you better hope it matters

[@Shadowsoftime99]

@@kindklan8020 It's funny because my friend plays Branded and has actually gotten really deep into playing paper/TCG lately, and from him I've learned that like 75% of Branded deckbuilding is just "What do you do when Fusion gets Ashed" Unfortunately this means they still get to play if Ashed now. They've learned how to.

[@jorgecarvajal5385]

for this format you right, i do shifter droll and always they skipp the turn@@BrinkOfInfamy

[@ODDiSEE_]

"none im playing striker" was way funnier than it had any right to be

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

It's even funnier that he thought the response wouldn't just be someone screaming "PEDO!".

[@CrazyWizza]

“Stop saying Chaos MAX, he’s not playing it!”

[@createrz8433]

Coder is never gonna live that down

[@U1TR4F0RCE]

@@createrz8433 honestly it’s his fault for how he played that Guru control game. Craziest thing though is that it litterally happened 4 years ago.

[@Izudothiro]

This happened like, less than 2 hours ago: Master Duel, Diamond 3 game, was playing ninja, pretty nice start, set Tobari, face up Mitsu, set Notebook, Droll and Ash in hand and then my opponent activates Chaos Form...

[@justamuart]

​@@Izudothiro Your opponent manisfested those exact cards lol

[@kinodogoowotho]

Beautiful 😂

[@wario1226]

The problem with "noob trap cards" is that not only do noobs play them, but noobs lose to them. It creates a cyclical environment where those cards get a ton of traction because people will lose to it and copy it. It's like a virus spreading throughout the lower level player base, clouding the line between general improvement and situational improvement.

[@phantom_mist1726]

Best explanation so far lol

[@skilledsummoner4274]

"A significant amount of removal spells don't target, don't remove" MBT 2024

[@MrBoo703]

Don't you hate when your opponent remove your Blue-Eyes Chaos Max. Dragon from the field with a spell that doesn't remove?

[@berserkerciaran]

Me, removing Chaos MAX by Summoning a 4100 attack Gragonith through Glorious Illusion:

[@user-ms5mt7xs1i]

Naturia Bamboo Shoot look absolutely crazy especially with all the support it has these day "What? I just summon this card and shut down 2/3 of my opponent's deck? This card is nuts!"

[@Burn2themall]

it kinda is if you get hit by it but to put it out consistently their deck needs to go uninterrupted

[@VixYW]

It is. But good luck making it happen. I wish I could...

[@arielcevallos8188]

​@@VixYWNaturia player here. I did it 4-5 times. Thats 1/8, of the times I play it in my deck, cause the other 7/8 scenarios it only was a dead card or got Kaijued, so, I don't recommend playing it unless you want to lose (more than a Naturia deck can). It's pretty fun when it works.

[@kaiser371]

I play it in Vernuslyph/Naturia build in MD and it's carried me to Diamond. It can be hella sacky, so I'd only run one and use it in when it's not over extending.

[@Crawver]

I always run 3 ash in my decks, but that's just because it's the "safest" hand trap. Even if it doesn't end turns, it can often complicate your opponents turn, and hamper their end state. It does this to pretty much any deck in the game. However, most decks I run have more powerful, if nicher handtraps in the side. If ever I go up against a deck that I have one of my silver bullets in, and I can't bring myself to cut other cards in the matchup, ash gets the axe quite regularly. Many matches I play, she doesn't live past game 1. And the best part is often people still play around and try to bait the ashes that aren't there anymore.

[@Dw7freak]

It's also a good Crossout target if you're playing that since a vast majority of people are playing Ash.

[@dylanwight5764]

Ghost Ogre usually finds a way into my side with Emergency Teleport. Sometimes you just need to threaten a Ghost Ogre activation to curtail an opponent's turn... then next turn you hit them with the second one in hand.

[@abdurachmanromzy4778]

Pretty much spot on If there any reason why ash feel like newbie trap,thats because player already making habbit of playing thru ash for years (while konami,at the same time making archetype that dont die fron single non floodgate-based interuption)

[@Keisuki]

I'll stop playing Ash in every deck when Master Duel releases a format that isn't 50% Branded or 50% Floo. It's hard to call Ash a noob trap when it just stops... the majority of decks in every meta since Eldlich stopped being played. And also instakills any non-meta deck

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

Cope and seethe.

[@NACHOXXX4]

Ash argumentation works for a non maxx c environment

[@Badbufon]

even within maxx C there are some decks that doesn't care about it, like Lab.... and let me check, yes, 77% run 3 ash, only 19% gigachads realized they don't need it

[@midn8588]

Yeah I ended up cutting both from Runick, the nonengine slots are super tight cuz more engine is more card draw and you don't want to open yourself up to called by or crossout. Just played kaijus/golems/balls instead.

[@kindklan8020]

idk i see it in RPS kind of way EX Shifter can auto win games... or do nothing... Droll same thing :)... Ash can also be game determinative depending on what you're playing against ex shifter, and droll useless against lab but ash is insane. Same deal with branded against droll can just not be enough or it can sometimes stop branded fusion access whereas ash beats branded fusion 100% of the time(except when cross out or called by i guess). i guess shifter can put in some work but ofc not every deck can run shifter... Just the fact that you don't 100% know what you're dealing with all the time makes ash pretty valuable being at least able to trade or stop some plays. Normal summon girsu ash blossom eff guess ya pass? scarlet sanguine eff ash blossom guess i can't conq?... benkei effect to search... the rest of my hand is literally just ash blossom joyous spring and SHS scales GG. Another Ex. Exosister droll is decent against them, shifter not so much ash pretty effective just ash on martha is usually pretty good. Ash blossom just being able to do something usually is pretty goated

[@xCorvus7x]

@@kindklan8020 Isn't Girsu's strongest effect the Token creation or are you talking about it in Orcust?

[@Merilirem]

@@Badbufon This. I will say its still not a bad card but you don't need it in a lot of decks. If you only wanna do 2 specials in a turn you do not NEED to stop Maxx C. Maxx C's big problem is when you go beyond that or can't do it during any turn. You can just play a different card. Better yet play one that brings you closer to zero special summons.

[@KuroeNezumi]

I mean, dire has a point: the only reason bonfire is really good is "there's generic engine that uses specific pyros to do most of a one-card combo". as soon as those cards are hit, which TBH I'd imagine either they will be hit or be powercrept into hell, bonfire will just be a worse ROTA, because pyro still is a type that barely has worthwhile cards outside of like, 2 pyro archetypes that are actually playable RN with worthwhile lv4's to add, and a few one-off "splashable" pyros we have right now. I don't believe we have reached a "pyro-singularity" point to say that bonfire is good in general, compared to how we can say that of other searchers (mainly ROTA, ofc), but let me be clear: it IS CURRENTLY GOOD because we do have something generically good to do with it.

[@123321cpu]

Dire is saying that is a "noob trap" though. Is it reasonable to call it that when it will be a staple in ALL pyro decks, regardless of their competitive viability?

[@kashiffarees881]

We kinda already went through this with tenki 10-ish years ago.

[@nothingelsetodoZ]

@@123321cpu As a noob, I would say yes just because it is a ridiculously expensive card right now, and as a noob it CAN backfire, and the experience just gets worse. God knows how badly I used cynet mining when I tried to get back to YGO with marincess.

[@stardustspark5682]

​@@nothingelsetodoZ1000% Every bad Salad player was playing 3 Debug, 3 Cynet the entire time, whereas the better deck builders have been switching back and forth between what is optimal and when. ESPECIALLY when Droll is in the format.

[@turtlesfan44]

⁠@@123321cpunot a really noob trap and more of a question on the price tag, when it gets reprinted and cheaper everyone will buy it, it’s a good searcher that is limited by what it can search and the price tag, remember how much Bystials were when they came out, they were good because they said fuck you to 2 attributes that were the strongest in the game and have a huge body that has extra effects. And the package could search out any dragon if you felt like it.

[@flamboyantwarlock7101]

On Master Duel specifically, I really think Blue Eyes and Dark Magician take the cake. Both of them are strong enough to help you climb ranks and consistent enough to make you feel like you're learning play patterns, but they fall off HARD once you rank up enough to play with people who really know what they're doing. They feel less like "Noob Traps" and more like "Neo-Noob Traps", by which I mean, they're the Trap for returning players. Source: I played Dark World during the Synchro/Xyz era, then fell off. Came back, saw all the new Dark Magician support, and wrecked many faces with it until I suddenly couldn't anymore.

[@wastelandcloud4355]

I remember in college having a buddy as for a yugioh match since he found out i used to play. I brought my old budget infernity from when they were just released. drew a bricked hand, set beetle and some backrow and passed. My buddy whips out a chaos max and pierces for game. I have to admit, it seemed strong in the moment

[@FaolanKitekaze]

I love that the community has decided that Dragoon is bad. It means that when I drop it playing branded/chimera, the response is usually "shit, how do I out this?" It's definitely not the first thing you're making, but sometimes an indestructible omni negate against a deck that really wants to destroy things is enough

[@garginshnargin1165]

I also like dragoon in branded but seems like everyone is moving away from it. More dragoon for me

[@FaolanKitekaze]

@@garginshnargin1165 I might drop it as more illusion stuff comes out

[@michaelkeha]

It's cause yugioh has been so consumed by the competitive mind set that anything not meta is just meme garbage so very often just putting down a powerful board that isn't what they know to out they just sit there dumbfounded nothing is funnier than watching them burn out trying to figure out what just happened when you Ultramafus them mid combo

[@adamxue6096]

Specifically for Dragoon, the OCG does have it banned, so it's not 100% noob trap, it's a good card, it's just not a good enough card nowadays when the entire deck can only do this one thing. It's the best as a side or mini engine that just pops out to spook people with as an anti meta option, if everyone had to run this it will get shat on pretty badly, which I think is why it's (still) a noob trap. The less people playing it, the better it gets.

[@OlgaZuccati]

funnily enough I played branded on omega and there was this dude mounted on dragoon. ydk malding to me playing through his negate and killing his dragoon over and over with mirrorjade.

[@nanchoparty]

In the defense of Chaos Max: _you don't have to run more than 1 copy._ This card and its ritual can be fished out of the deck. Better it be a single line in a Blue Eyes deck than not at all.

[@__-be1gk]

Borrelend - Can't be targeted or destroyed: "HOLY SHIT HOW DO I OUT THIS" Chaos Max - Can't be targeted or destroyed: "THIS IS THE WORST BOSS MONSTER IN THE HISTORY OF TIME"

[@aceknight6622]

i still don't understand why chaos max isn't good(i also play exclusively galaxy eyes and OCG so maybe that plays a part)

[@vaultboy5492]

@@aceknight6622literaly same i dont get it i feel like all these meta players just have a hive mind and dont actually have any opinions

[@phantom_mist1726]

@@aceknight6622it wins games sometimes. I think what makes it hard is because it’s a ritual monster. If chaos max literally just said “if you control no monsters special summon this card. “ I feel like would change peoples minds. It would be a VERY strong going second card and hard to deal with.

[@kylefreeburg9353]

The difference with borrelload is that you put it alongside a lot of other cards. Since it's so easy to access it's an easy extra splash. CHAOS max requires more resources (at least 2 cards in hand) and the decks that use it primarily end up relying on that as their main strategy. That's the difference

[@TheChiefMoron]

@@aceknight6622 Chaos Max's issue is 1: its a blue-eyes card and that deck has major issues. but 2: what happens if you go first? It literally just sits there and doesn't do anything while your opponent gathers the materials to make accesscode and run it over. Like, "Accesscode (and other similar cards) exist" kinda just sums up it's issues. There are other generic, easier to summon monsters that you can swing for game with, and these cards also can be used by your opponent to out chaos max themselves. Like, it LOOKS hard to out, but literally everybody is playing at the very least one answer in their extra deck. And if it's not hard to remove, it's nothing more than a 4k atk vanilla.

[@lordgrub12345]

I talked about this in the post. The cipher bosses made my silly noob brain explode with "big attack = good"

[@richarddeleon3094]

Same. The highlight for me when using neo-cipher was against a kozmo player, taking their big ships and swinging for 6k

[@OizenX]

The only thing I can say against Ash that I don't like is that it feels like it basically sets a bar for what a good modern deck is, and then Konami ran with that with their ususal powercreep and now Ash does jack shit to newer decks while being an autowin to a fuckton of old decks that haven't gotten new support or enough extenders that make ash a whatever card.

[@buddbrown6858]

glad to see someone say it, Ash only being okay is a (mildly) concerning power creep issue

[@DrAiPatch]

Ya ash has been the bar between Meta and Rouge for a few years....... I'm looking forward to when it's the bar between Rouge and casual.

[@Sebastian-tm6hk]

​​@@DrAiPatch We're already reaching that point, maybe give it like two more years of power creep and the only thing Ash will be a problem for will be table 500 decks. And Branded.

[@nuhrii3449]

yeah, ash is basically death against my machina deck, since you really need gearframe, unlcaspare, and redeployment to trigger, but beetrooper can play through ash, and an imperm, possibly a baronne if i have descent or any other insect that summons itself and its off to the races

[@BronzeAnalystTM]

Yeah, Ash in an FTK against almost all old deck that rely on normal summons that search. For example, in my pure Morphtronic Deck. I normal Celfon, they Ash and if I cant respond or open specific extenders I just pass on a 100 atk "vanilla" and a dream.

[@drakkaar6676]

Noob traps, or not, swinging for downright obnoxious amount of damge with Equimax or Chaos MAX is still hella fun.

[@michaelkeha]

I mean at some point matches need to end and having a big Unga bunga smack usually will do it

[@AstralFlame]

The reason I sometimes find myself falling into the "You gotta play it" with ash is cause when you wish you had ash youll REALLY wish you had ash. U cant just stop branded fusion with an imperm, you cant Big Welcome with an Ogre. And even on the cases where those options could, often ash would also do what im looking for. Granted this is true for a lot of things such as back when wakaushi was terrorizing my life i often wished those ashes were ghost ogre but for some reason not having ash just feels AWFUL when you want it.

[@jorgecarvajal5385]

depend on decks, against fire kings snake its not good, against the other decks its good, for fire kings its better belle,

[@jblue6]

Recorded on valentines? He's out here making dire edit this all in ONE DAY! Offering both respect and condolences to dire

[@lefthandedscout9923]

People will laugh at Crusadia Equimax and me tributing over their first boss monster for Thunder King, only for them to be horrified when I drop the second Thunder King, and point out that I'm actually playing Kyoto Waterfront because I'm insane, and now they've been Azathot'd against the 14,000 damage deck. Seriously, the only thing you can trust more than a Yu-Gi-Oh player not reading your cards is them not reading cards they assume they've read before, like Gameciel and Thunder King. The deck dies in siding though :(

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

A fellow Crusadia Kaiju Player?! HIGH-FIVE! What's your decklist using Kyoto Waterfront? In my case, i have mostly played it at locals. And as a budget player, that still needs to get 2nd Equimax, my deck kinda dies going first. My best option is Leaving Equimax on turn 1 pointing to 1 crusadia monster (or minimum Crusadia Krawler as a body i can tribute for a neagte, and as a way to search world legacy succession), hoping i left Arboria on GY, having 1 Crusadia Power set and pray

[@xCorvus7x]

Which makes it perfect for Master Duel.

[@shimoshan7341]

@@ianr.navahuber2195 i had a crusadia d link deck with the waterfront tech and one of the end boards that it was vety capable of doing was gameciel with the counters, borrelend with the respective rokket on GY, a savage with 4 borrel counters and maybe equimax with a negate or seals on the emz

[@WhoIsSirChasm]

The entire Nouvelles archetype... ...even though I still play Nouvelles in Master Duel. It's fun to see who refuses to read.

[@grodon909]

Also the people who read the small or big Nouvelles but don't read the 3 or 4. Fun fact, they don't target!

[@spidudetoo1212]

​@grodon909 after playing the deck a bunch, the 3 and 4 rituals are most often the most useful when it comes to interrupting your opponents turn. I see far too many players try to shotgun straight into the 5 or 6, wasting a bunch of resources, when just the 3 and the pendulumn is more than enough, especially with both traps set. Also people sleep on the continuous trap. That thing is nuts.

[@gallantblade1825]

@@spidudetoo1212Agreed. It disappoints me that all the Nouvelles deck profiles I’ve watched have the Level 4 at 1. Like, you send so many cards to the graveyard the recursion is nice PLUS it goes straight into the Level 6 to wipe the field anyways! It’s the pseudo-boss monster of the deck! Honestly, I play the Level 5 at 1. The deck already has quite a lot of resource recursion and search power.

[@r3zaful]

​​@@spidudetoo1212the deck really suck balls to play in master rank back then the only good match up is against dragon link and vs.

[@stayflyxx]

Oh I read them, it's just a weird deck to play around. I will say I had one of my favorite duels in MD against it.

[@RockmanX47]

I think the Ash Blossom discussion is actually a fun one to have. This is a card that can either mollywhoop a whole deck in one resolve or be a speed bump nowadays and deck design philosophy is making the latter more prevelant than the former as long as we are discussing stuff that isn't TCG debuts (Tistina and Veidos) which does lead the question of running it worth having and I think Ash losing its grip on decks is actually a good thing as long as its substitutions aren't cards that are unhealthy to the game which is... Something that requires sorting out still.

[@nuhrii3449]

i play a ton of beetroopers, and ash doesnt really do anything, because most people try to stop reso, when thats not really what they should be doing, and even then that only stops one card, i can still go into atlas or pico into sting lancer, and trigger a bunch of reso banishes

[@michaelkeha]

I mean given their design philosophy Ash's powercreep replacement is gonna be as back breaking as Ash used to be I imagine some kind of negate and banish face down all copies of the card negated from hand deck graveyard and field isn't out of the question and then decks will get powerful enough to just ignore that and thus the cycle continues

[@EddieintheLoop]

The crazy part about ash in the current Fire deck format is just that it is pretty good at stopping certain powerful effects, but if your opponent has ANY extension, then your ash that you used just becomes their free Promethan Princess basically, it's very odd how I'm like, Unfortunately i can't not main ash right now, but ANYTIME I'm facing fire decks, i am a good amount of the time putting in ghost belles or super polys and taking out ash just for how detrimental that hiita can be

[@Kirabetas]

There's another problem with Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, and it's the targeting 'protection.' It may say targeted protection, but it's actually limited targeting protection. For example, if you flip Gold Pride - Start Your Engines!, you'd assume the card wouldn't be able to do anything, as the card reads "If your opponent Normal or Special Summons a monster(s): Target 1 of those monsters; reveal 3 "Gold Pride" monsters from your Deck, your opponent randomly picks 1 for you to Special Summon, shuffle the rest into your Deck, then destroy the targeted monster." You'd assume this would do nothing, as it both targets and destroys the target. However, it still targets Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon and destroys it as a result. There are multiple cards that explicitly state targeting as the requirement that seem to just be able to ignore Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon's effect for no reason. I couldn't find any reason these interaction works. All I could assume is that Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon has a secret description that reads "Your opponent cannot target this card with card effects unless it is targeted, also it cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects unless it can be destroyed by an opponent's card effect." Seriously, I love this game, but I also absolutely despise this game.

[@Oearli]

Do you have an actual ruling for that as reference or are you just talking out of your ass? (Because, even if the targeting part would be correct, you just said a monster that "cant be destroyed by card effects" gets destroyed by a card effect)

[@Kirabetas]

@@Oearli Master Duel, it has happened time and time again during the event that had Gold Pride as a loaner deck. When I looked it up, I found nothing. This is probably because neither of those cards are competitively viable, and have never needed a ruling. The only thing I could think of is that it reacts in a similar speed to Solemn Judgement because the Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon was just summoned, but that was me grasping at any kind of reason. I love playing jank decks over tiered decks, Blue-Eyes Ritual is one of them. Try it out for yourself in a private duel with a friend and you'll see Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon's protection doesn't always cover itself from the things it claims.

[@Oearli]

@@Kirabetas sounds like a bug to me, because Solemn also negates the summon, so the timing of the destruction happens before the monster is on the field and its protection effect isnt active yet. But as im not a Judge myself, what do i know.

[@Kirabetas]

@@Oearli That's what I assumed, that Gold Pride - Start Your Engines! activated as it hit the field. But the wrench in that plan was that other summon cards didn't work, like Trap Hole. As much as I wanted to get to the bottom of this, I just couldn't find anything, because none of these cards are relevant enough to get official rulings. I'd also be curious on things like DB rulings, but again, what's the likelihood this would ever come up? The rare instances stuff comes up to get past Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon seems to only be during those special events in Master Duel. Who knows though, maybe we'll get some kind of answer now that the new structure Deck dropped.

[@TheChiefMoron]

@@Kirabetas I know this sheds exactly negative light on things, but I can tell you that start your engines doesn't even activate as "fast" as solemn does. The OCG rulings say that the monster still gets successfully summoned before the destruction part of the effect begins. All I can think of is that perhaps they made a major coding mistake and after you choose the card for your opponent to summon, it now counts as YOUR effect since the field will still be your color as it resolves, and if that happened i could see it working since chaos max is only protected from your opponent's effects and not your own.

[@numimio]

I think the biggest noobtrap i fell for was believing in YuGiTubers that the labrynth mimics aren't good. I was always confused like "But you get Welcome for free??" and all i ever got was "just play floodgates"

[@michaelkeha]

You are trying to argue on the axis of what would be true vs potential advantage theory against people who's hivemind runs on the older and blish principle levels of faulty plus minus theory you literally have to show them and beat them with it until enough of the drones see it to filter to the core of the hivemind and then they will change their view while claiming they always thought that way

[@afeathereddinosaur]

I believe that we need to try all "noob traps", with the speed cards are released we will never master a new format, but having all of these random cards and ideas being tried out constantly will help advance our progression to figuring out different formats. You know how Edison has had multiple developments with only time and care put into it and while much of that comes from the starts aligning for Edison, other formats can still have a bit of that meta revolution without depending on new cards.

[@TheAverageGatsby]

Watched this live. I'm really glad you kept the Ash/Apollousa discussion in on this. Very thought provoking.

[@ak47dragunov]

Dragoon still sees Tier 2 meta play to this day in both pure Branded and the Chimera version, even outside the confines of Anaconda, if your deck can cheat that thing out, its a house

[@caster25000]

"[Ash] is MAYBE the best handtrap." [Maxx "C" will remember that.]

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Some of these feel less like “noob” traps and more like cards everyone thought would be good and then it didn’t.

[@EmersonCRVG]

yeah, specially dragoon

[@Zetact_]

​@@EmersonCRVG Dragoon was a game winner by itself for a good while but the only issue is that in the TCG it was printed AFTER the card that was specifically made to counter Dragoon.

[@RanDoomPuff]

​@@Zetact_ what card are you talking about?

[@JamarWilliams94]

​@@RanDoomPuff talents, and droplets are 2 that comes to mind

[@KuroeNezumi]

I mean, a lot of them do read crazy good to someone who is just starting to play the game, until they understand how the game "flows" and which card effects you can expect to make an impact, depending on your strategy and what kind of environment you're expecting to play against.

[@lucaslennan3356]

7:20 He is not joking. This literally happened. When Salad came out, I was in the youtube comments explaining to someone IN THE WORLDS RACE why they were strong. He just didn't get it. I finally got him with "It's like Zoo, you just set 3 and then do it again next turn."

[@obskewerd3992]

Dont EVER get rid of that X-Men edit. That was the coolest god damn thing. Hell yeah 😂

[@dudebladeX]

Honestly, I'm in agreement with Ash… To a certain extent. Some decks probably operate better without it around, some decks probably operate better with it around, Hita can go both ways, and sometimes, you're on a Synchro build and your opponent couldn't get rid of everything, so now you have a level 3 to use for synchro plays.

[@jorgecarvajal5385]

ash is good but against fire kings it just more full for FK, but against most of the decks its good

[@Nekranon]

Veiler is the best hand trap. It's not once per turn, so you're not gonna feel the same brick when you draw 2-3 of them in your opening hand like you do with Ash.

[@some2043]

as much as i would kill for veiler, imperm is the best handtrap (no it is not once per turn) among the ones that are pure minus ones

[@indescrepit9973]

Imperm is better than veiler in almost every way. The choice to activate it at the beginning of your turn is incredible at stopping boss monsters that your deck may struggle against. Also going first, imperm shutting down a s/t zone is important in certain matchups, especially pendulum decks

[@NotALoli_]

I do agree with the Ash Blossom take, at a point it was VERY powerful and was capable of ending turns (kind of like how powerful Dimension Shifter was), but as time has gone and decks have evolved Ash doesn't have as big as an impact as it had a few formats back. It's still a good card but it's not as good as it used to be.

[@buddbrown6858]

Ash only being okay is an example of power creep that 2018 me wouldn't have been able to fathom

[@MBTYuGiOh]

@@buddbrown6858 This is a funny response because I think the #1 worst format for Ash Blossom by a LOT was actually the very first format it was released in. People were maining Ghost Ogre in MACR format and boarding Ash for True Draco (where it was worse than Droll, hilariously).

[@pretends2know]

Ash's TCG power is artificially inflated by Master Duel where it's the 2nd best card in the game. It's essential in Master Duel, so surely it's essential in TCG as well, right?... Right?!

[@spicymemes7458]

​@@pretends2knowidk about artificially inflated, but overused

[@mateusrp1994]

Decks have evolved specifically because of Ash. Every meta deck is made to play past it, cards that search backrow by setting it from deck were called out during an OCG live stream and the other announcer just openly said its necessary to play the game nowadays.

[@braverleonheart5035]

Honorary mention to those cards which are ‘insanely powerful’ to people returning to the game after a long time away. Magic Cylinder, Mirror Force, Swords of Revealing Light. I feel like everyone who watched Duellist Kingdom, left for 15 years and then came back put at least one in their decks when returning.

[@bsgfan1]

0:34 Sometimes I side Chaos Max specifically for the Crooked Cook stall players. Yes, I know there’s easier ways to get rid of Cook, but sometimes it’s funnier to send a message than being efficient. If they’re running a stall deck, then they probably have ways to summon another wall, but they’ll always carry the shame of losing to a noob bait card.

[@durgons749]

So, I agree about Ash, and tried running multiple locals without it. Here was the issue, which I also guessed would be the issue: My H/T arrangement became much less broad. Sure, I felt good into like Mannadium and what have you, but I sat across Labrynth and looked at my Nibiru, Droll and just cried inside. Same goes for less popular decks or degenerate decks. If my opponent is on Eldlich Stun or something equivalently brain rotting, all of my non-engine became immediately useless. Where Ash allows you to hit pretty much every deck in some fashion, and force them to take alternative lines. Now, I've been considering running this experiment back but with different non-engine, which we'll see about.

[@snes90]

As a kid, Solemn Wishes was my jam and I loved playing Big Eye. Stacking the deck for the next five turns? And it's DARK for my Chaos Sorcerer? Thank you! Turns out I just had more experience from playing the video games when I would play paper and I won *in spite* of my deck building choices.

[@CrazyAce777777]

lol my first MD deck was Ojama ...then Blue eyes ...then Vampires... then Buster Blader... then Black Luster.........then trickstar and madolche. Basically I only play the best of the best

[@stuartmcewan8750]

if we go by Master Duel standards Ash is in pretty much every deck because you need anything available to stop the Lv2 Earth Insect. But also agree that it isnt as broken as its made out to be and if master duel did the unthinkable and ban the bug, Ash would appear a lot less.

[@spicymemes7458]

No, because Maxx C was banned for 3 days, and everyone just replaced it with Droll, kept Ash at 3. This is cope by the yugioh community to think people are only playing it for Maxx C. It's a generically good card in it's own right when almost every archetype searches and special summons from deck now. There is more of a reason why it's the 2nd best handtrap in MD.

[@stuartmcewan8750]

@@spicymemes7458 Probably should of said Could instead of Would. But yeah, still very good.

[@louc.6735]

Until Master Duel bans Maxx "C", i think you do need Ash.

[@adrianjones1527]

The reason why most of these cards aren't good is because a win in Yugioh is basically decided by turn two.

[@themightyai-5302]

Yeah, my hot take on Ash is that it has become the birth right to other cards that maybe should not have been printed. "No, it is not too OP, it will be negated by Ash Blossom x times out of 10 and therefore it is balanced." Looking at you, branded fusion.

[@xatuyou8045]

You should do one for “time bomb cards” cards like block dragon and number 89 that just need one deck to break them. Snake rain would be a great example

[@MrShukaku1991]

Blizzard Thunderbird. It's a pretty good looking extender that just... has like, 7 targets it can hit in the whole game.

[@portsyde3466]

Skull Servant is still one of my favorite decks of all time. Granted, I don't play it with 60 cards, I actually want something more consistent than that, but I love it just the same.

[@jeremyadkins9665]

I fell for a classic noob trap with Scareclaws; I kept seeing CaliEffect hype it up, and hype it up, and hype it up, and eventually I was like "Yeah, I can make this work". To this day, I don't think Scareclaws has ever really topped a major tournament. My roommate has the opposite noob trap: he seems to have a keen eye for judging which archetypes have a broken enough gimmick to them to make them powerful, and usually, those archetypes end up becoming the best choice for the current meta, at the time. Thing is, because he's on disability and thus on an EXTREMELY limited budget, and we're stuck more or less in a Yugioh dead zone where the nearest OTS is about an hour away from us, we just can't have him capitalize on that by buying the cards he needs to make the deck viable, until after the deck falls so far out of favor that it dies. Seriously, he went through HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of packs of Gladiator's Assault to try and get even 1 copy of Heraklinos, failed, and only got it later on after the deck was no longer viable. He also seems to have an odd pseudo-old-school take on the more modern Pot cards (Desires, Extravagance, and Prosperity), where he doesn't like them because they banish face-down, and he is of the mind that EVERY card in your deck should be useful in some capacity for their given effect or strategy, and thus aren't expendable like that.

[@vampman87]

Mirror of Oaths. It automatically blows up any monster your opponent special summons from the deck and allows you to then draw one card. And it was a common! I thought this was game changing and I DID manage to pull it off on the first game I played with the card in the deck... and then I met the Floo player... and the Unchained player...

[@amiablereaper]

As a MD player, I WISH I could stop playing Ash.

[@purewhiteloverbizarrejelly]

“Pinpoint Landing is busted in Ursarctic”

[@r3zaful]

Bearcti? They are fine right now, not meta of course, but try to play against it in format like current master duel legends anthology event, that would be a nightmare.

[@slosh7072]

Ursarctic has an in-archetype Pinpoint Landing, it's called Radiation

[@purewhiteloverbizarrejelly]

@@slosh7072 it’s not searchable yet. Why not play 5 copies until then

[@phantom_mist1726]

@@slosh7072and it’s a million times better. Would be a broke card in another Archetype.

[@toadsagejacob7896]

To defend Chaos Max, it was good for a time. But then Utopia the Lightning got released... and then plenty of genuinely better cards got released. However, I won a Zoodiac local with it by piercing through Zoodiacs for game. But, yeah, it's not good ANYMORE. But, there was a time where the card was pretty alright.

[@Lil_LiIy]

utopia the lightning came before chaos max

[@DrDrao]

When impcantations first came out, I built a janky ritual toolbox deck. One of the things it could do was link into mermaid (wasn't banned yet), grab iblee, make any link 2, give the opponent iblee in def, then chaos max over it for 8k.

[@toadsagejacob7896]

@@Lil_LiIy Wait did it? I didn't start seeing bro until after Chaos Max was relevant

[@Lil_LiIy]

@@toadsagejacob7896 yes in TCG Utopia came around march 2016, chaos max july the same year (but I must admit that I thought Utopia the lightning was a lot more older than it really is)

[@RunicSigils]

@@toadsagejacob7896 Kinda yes and kinda no. In the OCG there was something like a year gap if I recall. In the TCG it was technically first by a few months but it was only a promo with the manga until a couple months after The Dark Side of Dimensions at which point it likely then saw play as a Dark Illusion SE Super. So you're both kind of right. It was out first but it likely wasn't seeing much play when it was only a manga promo as compared to when it was in 50% of SE boxes.

[@Burn2themall]

the nice thing about the current format is its not all about the negates anymore in fact alot of it comes down to how many interactions you have rather than just stopping them

[@stardust9470]

Fire decks have at the very least 2 to 3 interactions with the Snake-Eyes line(passing with Flamberge setting I:P and Princess on grave,the Amblowhale pop will happen sometimes

[@sladevalen2120]

The fire cards in master duel have caused me so much pain already that I finally built drytron. I now use drytron to get vanietys ruler because I hate my opponents and myself.

[@double2helix]

Dragoon still looks pretty strong too me, but I can see how DPE is better overall. I would have loved to see what happened had they unbanned Dragoon when DPE was new in MD. I'd wager both Dragoon and DPE would have been played and I have no clue who might have been more popular.

[@dudegrey6608]

If you tried playing Dragoon and DPE in the same deck, you're probably seeing worse hands than I saw at a recent tournament with Dinosaurs. And those were get Ash'd and pass hands bad.

[@double2helix]

@@dudegrey6608 Well yeah next to nobody would play both in the same deck, that is just asking for bricked hands

[@Bidoof_is_best]

Anyone else remember when people would swear up and down that "you can't play around or through an Ash, your deck is shit and you have to play 3 or youre a noob!" Era of time in yu-gi-oh?

[@olyviermonteau4300]

"i'm too smart to fall for that.." *-he says, after saying charmer steal is busted against dug zeef.*

[@cannonclip]

Ash perhaps is a liability against some current top tier meta decks where they can play through it or as you mentioned use it with hita But, a significant portian of the Yu-gi-oh playerbase doesn't always run into these matchups exactly, as it's more common to find rogue/offmeta strategies that actually have very powerful setup turns and sometimes unbeatable endboards and the best answer to these decks is any amount of interruption for which ash hits them the most Ash is the best comfort pick as you won't be blown out by certain jank strategies and wondering "What if I just had an ash?" Of course this actually applies to all hand traps in a way, though ash just hits the most decks.

[@Lightstation_]

Ash blossom is definitely more important in ocg and master duel where maxx C is legal

[@Xahnel]

Fun fact about Supply Squad: konami views card advantage as so powerful that in Legacy of the Duelist, that if you have Supply Squad up, AI players will 100% refuse to attack into an otherwise empty board unless they can game end you that turn. You can literally just wall any deck in that game that doesn't have spell/trap zone removal.

[@SahnigReingeloetet]

That‘s what put Dragon Link (depending on the iteration, the deck started out very linear and then over time people realized how flexible the deck can be) and Adamancipator apart from other kitchen sink combo decks. The decks put up negates, sure, but behind that is a completely untapped pool of resources allowing for a control style grindgame. For Adamancipators that was Block Dragon, for Dragon Link that was the sheer amount of recursion offered by cards like Boot Sector Launch and Starliege Seyfert.

[@jeremyadkins9665]

I feel called out by that Morganite take, honestly. Granted, I'm not stupid enough to put it in EVERY deck, but in some of my other jank decks, like Modern Wanghu Stun, where I'd need the deep digging into my deck constantly for pieces of removal and negation... I think I'm going to shut up, now, before I get hated on by the playerbase...

[@ViperRaiyu]

I’d honestly say Chaos Max is underrated. Has better protection than most other boss monsters and massive attack. Avramax gets praise for serving a similar purpose, although Avramax has the advantage of being splashable.

[@nuhrii3449]

avramax bounces if it gets removed which is much more punishing, and its not immune to destruction, so throwing a gokipole is enough

[@kylianos3907]

Well, Avramax is in the extra deck. He will never get in the way when you don't want to see him, like ritual monsters tend to do a lot. Also the Standard I:P into Avramax is still better, it has all the protection Chaos MAX has, plus it can't really be run over by battle, and even when your opponent manages to out it, it takes one of their cards with it. Biggest issue is that if you want to play Chaos MAX, you have to commit to it, but without interruptions to back him up he is just a big boy. Most decks nowadays have at least SOME way to out it. Avramax on the other hand is usually just a plan B.

[@zeyadamr5169]

Starting the game I honestly did think Ash is too broken, but I've come to really appreciate it due to how its broad effect means you're very much rewarded for knowing how your opponent's deck plays, I think the best example of Ash being a good but not huge impact card is current master duel meta Branded despia is tier 1 despite Ash being the second most played card in the game thanks to the roach, and its due to the insane alternative gameplans the deck has in the 60 card variant with grass as well as being able to play under droll with no issue and Sanctifire giving the deck a relatively great one special summon turn under Maxx C, not to mention Bo1 being completely different from bo3

[@horchataguy91]

That X-men intro 🤝🏼🤝🏼🔥🔥💯💯

[@davyjones5361]

Well, Ash is not that much of a noob trap in Masterduel. Even in Tearlament format it was still played at 3 because of Max C. The only decks I am confortable not using Ash for are decks unafraid of Max C like Subterror Guru control (I don’t play Floo, but it would work too) or decks that can’t afford the space like Drytron or pendulum. The meta is just different.

[@Voicezi]

absolutely love the intros never disapoints catchy jingles

[@GameShark9000]

EL SHADDOLL WINDA IS SO POGGERS GUYS! IT LOCKS OUT FIRE KINGS AND EVERY SINGLE DECK! Yeah, whatever. Draw Phase: Infinite Impermanence

[@DrAiPatch]

The ash argument comes up so much on the Master duel forms. Cant tell you how many people post "well if they bann Maxx C they need to bann ash". The only decks that Ash is beating are either bad or bricked.

[@spicymemes7458]

Most decks special or add from deck to function. That's not a niche application. That's how the game has been designed lately. What is this take

[@victorholmes7075]

Chaos Max was the centerpiece of my first Master Duel Deck. For reference the last deck I owned had Levia-Dragon Daedalus as its boss monster

[@Ind3xPlus]

Daedalus was a great boss monster! I always built a deck around it in the Tag Duel games

[@VitVash]

As a new player who doesn't know much about the game this video is so helpful!

[@1superstick]

I like how in the movie that chaos max was showcased in, it lost to apple magician girl making it target dark magician girl.

[@Gawatsu]

Back when I was a little kid and the only cards I knew were the ones me and my brother got from random old card packs from a local card shop, I thought riryoku and blast held by a tribute where the second best cards in the game, first being my brother’s Blue-eyes white dragon.(note: This was back when dragon rulers where dominating)😂

[@augustbirkebo332]

now the true dueltaining tech is making a deck out of this

[@fuddyduddie1205]

I run the snake eyes end board with Apollousa, Baron, BLD, and Linku. I have yet to lose when she resolves from IPM. However, I never place her out there without them to cover her tail. So you’re right. Noobs won’t get it.

[@StolfBoichCh]

I gotta agree with the Appo one, I remember early MD I was playing Gouki and went into an Appo, only for my Opponent to use Raigeki. I thought maybe this card isnt as good as I thought

[@-rolyat44]

I feel like I pretty easily dodged all these noob traps back when I was first getting into the game by simply knowing and accepting I didnt know what was good until I saw that it was good

[@double2helix]

My early noob trap were inconsistent FTKs, I was amazed that the right combo could win turn one. But thanks to bricked hands and hand traps I found out that Fusion gate and chain material aren't op cards and in fact are quite unplayable.

[@Nightmare-we8vm]

There are several cards, like Ash Blossom, that are really useful but don't end games. In master duel specifically, you can bait them out too since you know they have a response whenever you add a card.

[@salami9699]

I remember my gouki days where my final end board would be a 3 material apoloussa, gouki power load ogre (a link 4 towers) verte and dragoon. It wasn't the best end board but it's pretty decent

[@zeloz6129]

Time tear actually has one archetype it slots super well into and it's Qliphorts. With it and the field spell active you can get three normal summons per turn.

[@unamusedwaffle]

That ash discussion at the end really got me thinking…

[@Ashacarlosalbert]

Well, when I was younger on Ygo, my friend played Chaos Max. I was forced to put Borreload Dragon on every extra deck to out it.

[@18nightc322]

Dire really killed the editing with this one.

[@May_92]

I recently returned to MD to try the sanke-eye cards, played snake-eyes/live twin all the way to diamond in one weekend and I have to say the amount of people trying to chaos MAX turbo was staggering. I like the points about Ash and Apollousa, I think they are both noob traps in different ways. Apo is a card that has a lot of power but a lot of counterplay and you need to know when to drop it to be useful. Ash on the other hand is the second best card in MD because max C is a thing and in my opinion is a card that good decks are designed around. If your deck is bad Ash is killer, but new meta decks are designed to play through it making it less impactful specially depending on the format.

[@PolybiusStreams]

you can wretch Gren Maju from my cold dead Silver III hands

[@xdragoonzero0]

The only primarily going second deck I have is Umi Control and thats because it plays 6 Evenly Matched, 3 of which can be played during Main Phase 1. This is especially true on Master Duel, where nobody negates A Legendary Ocean. After all, it has very little text and doesn't do anything.

[@kylianos3907]

That is extremely funny actually

[@Spoopmode]

Beetrooper might be the ultimate noob trap. They’re a link deck that has the word special summon on all their cards. How can they NOT be the best deck?

[@voltrya6844]

spell/traps are not real

[@YourKingSkeletor]

Ah Beetrooper. A deck that can push through anything but does nothing. I topped a few with it pre second wave and we all agreed a good second wave would break the deck. Don't get me wrong, secomd wave wasn't bad. But all they did was replace generic insects that did the exact same things, basically being even more searchable variants of things like Aztekipede. Now when Raika comes out them and Ogdoadic get end boards and may be broken... if the same thing doesn't happen with the 2nd wave of Raika.

[@sladevalen2120]

This makes me sad because I love their art and really enjoyed playing their solo mode in master duel. I didn't get to buy at the time and never built it sadly.

[@DrAiPatch]

​i remember playing through a Nib, Ash and Veiller with it..... If they ever make a good insect boss that deck is going to go crazy.

[@NickWuebker]

Even if it is a bit of a noob trap, I love Crusadia and play it in Master Duel. I know it’s not the best deck, but it’s still a very simple and very fun deck to play and I owe my love of it to MBT and the Prog Playoffs Gang. Watching them play that deck got me intrigued by it, so I built it in Master Duel and still play it to this day.

[@kylianos3907]

Playing the deck doesn't make you a noob. It's fun and you clearly know it's limits. The noob trap part is when people claim its broken/OP because of the big numbers

[@NickWuebker]

@@kylianos3907 Thanky you. I honestly think if Crusadia gets a bit more support it could potentially be a solid rogue deck. Voiceless Voice/Silenforce has proved that a towers like monster like Equimax can work in this day and meta.

[@TheChiefMoron]

Honestly i just kinda disagree with crusadia being here at all. If anything the deck has historically been super underrated and exploration in alt formats keeps showing that it's actually better than it was given credit for. It's just like, a bit outdated in the modern metagame but I wouldn't call it a noobtrap cuz of that. That'd be like saying striker was a noob trap lol.

[@Krokodilius]

scrap iron scarecrow puts in *WERK* in the old video games.

[@Yumil_fab]

The noob trap experience circa 2014 and predecessor to chaos max was reading Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons and having zero idea how you're supposed to out this.

[@yurisbest2892]

Tbf to supply squad it was kinda good on duelist alliance ba, mathmatician send graff, summon scram, scarm destroy, draw a card and end step search tour guide, then when mathematician was run over you drew two cards, however it was usually better to just use math on its own

[@jamesaditya5254]

Mist Body got me thinking it's an auto-win if I just stick it to a big enough beatstick. To be fair, I got the card right after reading THAT volume of Yugioh R

[@jbone_malone]

I totally thought you needed to play Ash these days. But then i learned about Hiita. This was a good video for not only noobs but returning players. Returning players pretty much are noobs at this point. I recently started back up with YGO at the end of 2023. The game has changed, but really, playing back then allowed me a capacity for bullsh*t that can't be matched. The last time I was playing was 2015😅

[@kingsaxicolous]

When I was actively playing Master Duel and sharing decklists, I would always put 3 Ash in the deck just because if I didn't people would question why I wasn't playing it. Before that when I was playing the TCG, I wouldn't put Ash in most of my decks, entirely because I couldn't find anything worth cutting that wouldn't make my decks slightly less consistent (in Shaddoll for example I wasn't going to switch something like a Veiler for an Ash, since worst case scenario that Veiler is half of a Construct). I have said for years that Ash, while yes, is a good card, isn't a must include in every deck. Obviously if your deck has a bunch of open slots (something like Swordsoul which can play a lot of non-engine), then you might as well play it, but having it be seen as an auto include is just making deckbuilding worse. The only comparison that can kind of be made to MTG would be saying that all decks that play Red need to run Lightning Bolt (never seen anyone say this, but trust me, it will make sense). Are the better Red cards than a card that just does 3 damage? Absolutely. But, in a pinch, it is both removal, and a burn spell, which both are extremely useful depending on the deck. Ash on the other hand, has a non-0 chance of just doing nothing if your opponent opens enough extenders or, if they are a decent player, play around Ash. This isn't me saying I am smarter than anyone or anything, I still think Ghost Belle is the best of the ghost sister handtraps entirely because it won me a locals 4 years ago, but, I will never say everyone should be playing it, since I know at the end of the day it isn't as good as something like Talents or even a couple of Kaijus

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

I recently realized that about Ash and Imperm/Veiler. Most of the time, if they work it's because the other player's hand or deck was bad anyway. Still not entirely sure if I should cut them, but definitely shouldn't rely on them anymore.

[@DrAiPatch]

Imperm still has it uses mostly baiting out negates on your turn.

[@Goldenleyend]

Man I spent so long trying to resolve Witch's strike, but the way you have to get negated is so specific you either didn't have it set or you already lost

[@blaakmage]

More vids with discussions about why cards are good/bad in light-hearted ways but especially of cards that aren't just meta. These are the vids I love and there aren't enough of them.

[@leejackson3737]

i kinda walked into a trap by getting 2 ash blossoms from a vendor at nationals. didnt want to go for 3 because i was afraid of having multiple ash in hand and not having enough plays