Blackwings in the new format

Digi wants me to be more active here, so maybe I should try a bit to converse with you all :3

I've been playing Blackwings ever since I started this game, so that's why I'd like to discuss this and get everyone's thoughts on Blackwings this format since I got the impression most of you still see them to be aggressive-like.

MegaCapitalG's BW deck profile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy_icqmHeZM

MegaCapitalG's BW >>> Wind-Ups as of now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7cPnhviLy0

TurkThePally's BW deck profile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1j8XKdOoE

TurkThePally's take on MCG's deck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX0xUgnWwIo

my thoughts

Spoiler:

Your thoughts? I'm still having a bit of consistency issues with getting my main beaters in hand and opening with dead kaluts and a bunch of spells/traps.

Weaknesses:
Slow at the start without the right hand, so it suffers from consistency issues, I could use a bit of help there.
Seems to struggle greatly from lack of monster presence. Deck-deva/epidemic and mind control sometimes end up hurting me more than helping, but they're game-winning cards when they go off. they're about 40/60 usable-dead ratio it seems, which is bad and would like to flip those numbers if any way possible, or at least someone could suggest good replacements?

EDIT:
My current version(edit #2): https://i.imgur.com/6nW4HNJ.png

well for 1 take out damascus
and you only need 1 vayu, and if you're going to the trouble of actually running vayu run the level 5 black wing synchro
i honestly think you should side skill drain and deck dev rather than main them
blizzard is an awesome card i suggest you run 2-3 of him and another siccoro, you could do like me and side 3rd siccoro and 3rd blizzard and side them in when you feel like they'd be more useful, 3 lance and 3 icarus is too much, take out 1 of each and put in mst
also this is only a personal thing but i suggest you take out bls or run 1 more veiler
though i never liked having both DAD and bls in your deck, with bw i usually just have 1 but both is fine and a lot of people run both so whatever suits you better

you can also try fitting allure in

Did you watch any of the videos? They explain why some of your suggestions are bad options.
Have you tested damascus? I have found it to be pretty successful, runs over pretty much any 4 star they bring out on me. He's also 1300 attack, which isn't terrible combo'd with a kalut. He's searchable with shura's effect if I need the extra monster, and goes into 6-star synchros with Gale.

I'm not sure why people say only one vayu, could you explain that one? It doesn't make sense to me. The 5-star bw synchro is kinda terrible so I dunno why you'd want to run it even with vayu. With skill drain, vayu is viable to synchro with even without shura bringing him from the deck so he's not so dead, especially combo'd with mind control if your opponent has a nasty monster out (e.g., mermails with megalo and the new 7-star one). I don't sync much into armor master anyway because his effect is practically useless. If he could be destroyed by battle from something, usually it has an effect that can get over him anyway, so he won't be usable for vayu to go into silverwind, and same with armed wing. His effect is alright, but do you see people play monsters in defense position anymore besides like Spirit Reaper or Snowman Eater?

Blizzard is an awesome card and I tested him in the deck, but like explained in the videos, skill drain destroys the opponent way more successfully than a blizzard play, and with skill drain out, blizzard is useless. Also, outside of Gaia Knight and Armed Wing, there really isn't a good 6-star synchro worth spamming with blizzard since Brio, Dark Strike Fighter, and Goyo are all banned. He isn't worth the room really since I can usually get better beatsticks out of Shura/Bora than Gaia Knight.

Sirocco at 2 or 3??? He's a terrible card that only goes off well if you go 2nd. Having 2 of them would just clog my hand with monsters I can't play even more. He's good fodder for Vayu, and when he does hit the field and you get Bora/whirlwind, it's a nice play if Bottomless/torrential/mst/anything that interrupts the play doesn't do so, but that rarely happens. They see a 2000 atk beatstick and most people respond to it.

If you've been playing bw's consistently at all you'd know 3 Icarus is a must and works excellently. Its possibly their best power card to even up the game. And Lance, also explained in the videos, is a VERY good card right now. With Solemn Warning going to 1, there's only 2 cards that it can't stop. That's it, and it acts as a mini-kalut in a way if you don't have one. MST is pointless because of the awesome chainables BW's can run: Lance and Icarus. They don't give a crap about backrow, and there isn't really a popular continuous trap/spell that hurts them atm. MST in the side takes care of Prophecy/DW/field spell reliant decks.

I actually haven't tested BLS yet, that was just a thought since I decided to run Veilers. Veiler is awesome right now so with 2 veiler and 2 Rai-oh I thought ey, why not. But yah Im not too sure I'll like the inconsistency of having dead monsters in hand like opening with DaD and BLS in the same hand.

Allure is meh. The 2 draws are cool, but there's nothing I'd want to banish pretty much ever. Bora, Sirocco, or Damascus are options, but once again I'd much rather keep them since the monsters really are precious in this deck.

I might try replacing Damascus with a Dark Eruption, it would allow me for a potential 4th Kalut play, which would be much better than Damascus.

Niko327 wrote:

Did you watch any of the videos? They explain why some of your suggestions are bad options.
Have you tested damascus? I have found it to be pretty successful, runs over pretty much any 4 star they bring out on me. He's also 1300 attack, which isn't terrible combo'd with a kalut. He's searchable with shura's effect if I need the extra monster, and goes into 6-star synchros with Gale.

I'm not sure why people say only one vayu, could you explain that one? It doesn't make sense to me. The 5-star bw synchro is kinda terrible so I dunno why you'd want to run it even with vayu. With skill drain, vayu is viable to synchro with even without shura bringing him from the deck so he's not so dead, especially combo'd with mind control if your opponent has a nasty monster out (e.g., mermails with megalo and the new 7-star one). I don't sync much into armor master anyway because his effect is practically useless. If he could be destroyed by battle from something, usually it has an effect that can get over him anyway, so he won't be usable for vayu to go into silverwind, and same with armed wing. His effect is alright, but do you see people play monsters in defense position anymore besides like Spirit Reaper or Snowman Eater?

Blizzard is an awesome card and I tested him in the deck, but like explained in the videos, skill drain destroys the opponent way more successfully than a blizzard play, and with skill drain out, blizzard is useless. Also, outside of Gaia Knight and Armed Wing, there really isn't a good 6-star synchro worth spamming with blizzard since Brio, Dark Strike Fighter, and Goyo are all banned. He isn't worth the room really since I can usually get better beatsticks out of Shura/Bora than Gaia Knight.

Sirocco at 2 or 3??? He's a terrible card that only goes off well if you go 2nd. Having 2 of them would just clog my hand with monsters I can't play even more. He's good fodder for Vayu, and when he does hit the field and you get Bora/whirlwind, it's a nice play if Bottomless/torrential/mst/anything that interrupts the play doesn't do so, but that rarely happens. They see a 2000 atk beatstick and most people respond to it.

If you've been playing bw's consistently at all you'd know 3 Icarus is a must and works excellently. Its possibly their best power card to even up the game. And Lance, also explained in the videos, is a VERY good card right now. With Solemn Warning going to 1, there's only 2 cards that it can't stop. That's it, and it acts as a mini-kalut in a way if you don't have one. MST is pointless because of the awesome chainables BW's can run: Lance and Icarus. They don't give a crap about backrow, and there isn't really a popular continuous trap/spell that hurts them atm. MST in the side takes care of Prophecy/DW/field spell reliant decks.

I actually haven't tested BLS yet, that was just a thought since I decided to run Veilers. Veiler is awesome right now so with 2 veiler and 2 Rai-oh I thought ey, why not. But yah Im not too sure I'll like the inconsistency of having dead monsters in hand like opening with DaD and BLS in the same hand.

Allure is meh. The 2 draws are cool, but there's nothing I'd want to banish pretty much ever. Bora, Sirocco, or Damascus are options, but once again I'd much rather keep them since the monsters really are precious in this deck.

I might try replacing Damascus with a Dark Eruption, it would allow me for a potential 4th Kalut play, which would be much better than Damascus.

well atm i only watched the first video
for one damscus isn't that good and you have much better stuff to run over a smiple 500 atk
and vayu....you talk about clogging hands but you're running 2 vayu? vayu is either 1 or 0, and the level 5 synch is because you can banish it + vayu to get armed wing
and unlike siccorro which you run only one of it'll be like insta when you use vayu
you won't always have skill drain and vayu is almost always bad to draw

and siccoro is a good card and your opponent having a monster won't be something that's actually rare...oh it's only dead on first turn.... or when your opponent actually doesn't have a monster, which will mean you don't really need to summon it

icarus isn't a must at 3, it's player preference, icarus is good but in some situations you'll find running that extra icarus over lets say mst or evac can screw you over, it's not bad to have 3 but i think 2 is enough, lance as he even said isn't really a must or optimal at 3, also if you use it to counter a bottomless for e.g. it will leave your monster weak and might end up with wasting your turn, mst is not at all useless and running 2 is a very good idea, you won't always want to kill your monster to get their s/t destroyed

allure is nice for those so called cloggy hand you'd have, since you run 2 vayu... and i did suggest 2 siccoro which if you're that scared of this scary situation.... you'd have an allure now, also it's good for a dead DAD or just not a good enough hand, not a must but i like it

as to the skill drain thing that you didn't mention, skill drain nice, though it's actually subpar against mermail unlike what the guy in the vid actually said, might help but not as great as it seems, and you forget this deck isn't made for only facing mermail and fire fist, there are some other decks you'd face some that might benefit more from skill drain or just not give a shit in general, it's why i suggest it as a side more than a main, though maining it is actually fine

blizzard which i almost forgot about, is an insta synchro that can also do neat combos with zephyre, also with the new level 6 synchro we have, and the new 1 or 2 level 6 synchros in the next pack it has some decent targets and some soon to come targets, if you don't want it then you can side it at least

also as odd of a suggestion as this may seem, macro is viable in bw side
yes i know you are thinking i'm an idiot and it's stupid, but macro is great when you side it against e.g. GAM,fire kings,dw that get shut down by it when you only get hurt by it, it will always hurt them more than you so it's something you CAN consider

also just because they said somethings are good choices doesn't mean that everything else is wrong and bad, also the deck of the guy in the vid is still much better than yours

Alright, Damascus is out, BLS is out, 1 Vayu is out, and sided Skill Drain. I thought about it for a bit and read your reply. It makes a bit more sense to just run 3 Veiler, and side the Skill Drains for match ups that need the heavier negation. I'm going to also test Allure, 2 MST, 2 lance, 1 blizzard, and 2 sirocco and see how I like it.

I just never really liked MST especially once people began running heavier backrows and chainables. Blind MSTing sucks and runs you into situations you don't want to be in, or you hit their mst and they still have bottomless face-down. I know, you'd say "well it happens, its a 50/50 chance if they have 2 backrow," but for me its like 80% chance I always have the crappiest luck, hence why I never play for money/irl or gamble, or do anything really that is based solely on luck.

Turk's deck runs 2 Lance, but MCG runs 3 and has the same reasons for running 3 that I do. It just runs well with BWs especially because you can use it as a alt. Kalut and plus from it with Shura. It's much more skillful than MST as well, and I usually end up getting more use out of it than I do MST since Miss Luck likes to tease me. Like I said, though, I'll test it, doesn't hurt any.

I have always liked having 3 Icarus so that is going to stay. I also really like Deck Deva after testing it for a while, it has just been really effective against pretty much every match up I've had, but still have yet to face fire fist (I'm sure it'd be terrible, but that's what side decks are for I guess).

https://i.imgur.com/6nW4HNJ.png

You don't need the MST or Veilers. Add 2 Rai-Oh, add 2 more Blizzard, take out the deck devi, either add 2 mirror force or add 1 mirror and starlight road / 2 torrential.

Also take out 1 Sirocco.

ICannotPlayYugioh wrote:

You don't need the MST or Veilers. Add 2 Rai-Oh, add 2 more Blizzard, take out the deck devi, either add 2 mirror force or add 1 mirror and starlight road / 2 torrential.

Are you sure you even play blackwings? rofl. I'm sorry, no offense, but mirror force in blackwings is dumb, and torrential isn't so good when I'm trying to keep my monsters on board. I already have 2 Rai-oh in my deck, and 2 more blizzard on top of my 1? Running 3 Blizzard is cloggy and inconsistent, the magic number is 2 everyone knows that. I only am testing 1 because I didn't have room for the 2nd, and also not sure if I even want him, so I'm going to test it out and if Blizzard seems really good when I get him, or I find myself in situations where he'd be good and don't have him, I'll make room for a 2nd one.

I ran Starlight Road for a bit, but I don't really like it. It's a good card don't get me wrong, but it's a player preference card. Would much rather run the line-up I have than make room for it.

Test out Deck Deva, then come back and tell me what you think of it. I feel like most people knock on it before they even have used it.

MST was kinda alright actually, it's nice to have against decks that play continuous spells/traps like fire fists. Not sure if it's worth it though because most of the time Blackwings really don't give a crap about backrow, and I could always use Delta Crow(the card's an amazing end phase sack).

Um, your the one who ran Skill Drain in Blackwings. I've been playing blackwings since they've came out, tested hundreds of versions. The suggestions I gave you are suggestions, don't critique them, either listen to them or don't. I use the cards I said in my Blackwings, and I am not complaining with an 11-4 record this format.

ICannotPlayYugioh wrote:

Um, your the one who ran Skill Drain in Blackwings. I've been playing blackwings since they've came out, tested hundreds of versions. The suggestions I gave you are suggestions, don't critique them, either listen to them or don't. I use the cards I said in my Blackwings, and I am not complaining with an 11-4 record this format.

Ok, I'm not even wasting my time with you. Don't post here unless you can learn what "discuss" means.

Niko327 wrote:

ICannotPlayYugioh wrote:

Um, your the one who ran Skill Drain in Blackwings. I've been playing blackwings since they've came out, tested hundreds of versions. The suggestions I gave you are suggestions, don't critique them, either listen to them or don't. I use the cards I said in my Blackwings, and I am not complaining with an 11-4 record this format.

Ok, I'm not even wasting my time with you. Don't post here unless you can learn what "discuss" means.

We are discussing. I discussed suggestions, you chose not to listen to them and criticize because YOU know what Blackwings are.

1. Stop listening to MCG
2. Deck is still mediocre this format without more than 1 Whirlwind. Unlike sams, it can't function well enough without BWW. I try to play Vayu every format's beginning, and it never works very well, maybe if BWW comes to 2 or 3, that can change.

Haha why stop listening to MCG? I think he usually has pretty good insight on the game. Not always, but usually, and he has a lot of good discussions and card choices that make you think.

Also agree with BWW. I've said it to myself a million times already that the deck can only ever hope to achieve even tier 1.5 if BWW were to come off the limited list. The deck is too inconsistent without it and too slow compared to the meta. They need BWW back or some other type of searcher/card that special summons your blackwings to even hope to be somewhat relevant in the meta.

I always play BWs simply because I love the deck. Blackwings are fun and enjoyable, even when I lose with them. They aren't OP or derpy like the new generation cards and are very versatile in ways to play them. The point of this thread wasn't solely for "deck help," but more to really discuss your thoughts/ideas on this new concept of playing blackwings, possible ways to make it better, and to discuss, well, "Blackwings in the new format." Not necessarily in the meta, but in the format in general with having 3 kaluts back.