I am a recent PhD graduate eager to transition into the engineering industry, bringing with me seven years of dedicated research experience in developing AI methods for high-speed circuit simulation. My expertise lies in proposing innovative ideas and solving diverse challenges, often necessitating the exploration and testing of alternative methods to enhance results.

I would be grateful for an opportunity to interview and further discuss how my background aligns with the requirements of the role. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to your team.

TOP 8 LOCAL WITH EIDOLON KAIJU SHADDOLL

DECK LIST

Main Deck (42)

# Monsters (24)
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3x Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju
2x Shaddoll Beast
1x Photon Trasher
1x Shaddoll Dragon
2x Shaddoll Squamata
1x Armageddon Knight
3x Aleister the Eidolon Summoner
2x Shaddoll Hedgehog
2x Shaddoll Falco
3x Maxx "C"
3x Effect Veiler

# Spell (20)
1x Harpie's Feather Duster
1x Reinforcement of the Army
3x Shaddoll Fusion
3x Terraforming
2x Eidolon Summoning Magic
1x Foolish Burial
1x El Shaddoll Fusion
2x Twin Twister
1x Super Polymerization
3x Magic Reckless Circle


Extra Deck (15)

# Fusion (12)
1x Elysion the Eidolon Beast
2x El Shaddoll Shekhinaga
2x Merkabah the Eidolon Beast
2x Magallanica the Eidolon Beast
2x El Shaddoll Winda
2x Calligula the Eidolon Beast

# Xyz (3)
1x Number S39: Utopia the Lightning
1x Number 39: Utopia
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight

I will not be posting side deck as I didn't prepare my side deck well in this event. I will not go in details for each of my match because I don't actually remember all the details during the match, but I will try my best to recall them.

1st Round : Me Vs Pure Zoodiac Beast (oo-)
Game 1: I went second because I lost the dice battle and draw double Maxx "C" during the first turn. Maxx "C" stun him for a turn then I activated Shaddoll Fusion during my turn and lock him out using Winda and Merkabah.

Game 2: His Anti-Spell Fragrance did stun me for a while. However, he overextended when I dropped Maxx "C" on him, giving me 3 draws. I managed to Exciton him next turn and controlled the game from there.

2nd Round : Me Vs Pure Zoodiac Beast (oxo)
Game 1: I went second and drew double Shaddoll Fusion. He solemn-ed the first one but I managed to activate the second Shaddoll Fusion. He then tried to pop my Aleister because he thought that Summoning Magic can only banish Aleister on the field. When I summon Merkabah plus Winda he just scooped.

Game 2: I forgot what happened but I lost.

Game 3: It was pretty back and forth game, he ran out of Drancia late game and I dropped BLS on him and won.

3rd Round: Me Vs Lightsworn (oo-)
Game 1: I use Maxx "C" to stun him on his first turn, and summon double Merkabah next turn. He scooped.

Game 2: He tried to summon Lightning on my double Merkabah field. I then used veiler on Lightning and he decided to hold his attack and end his turn. I Kaiju-ed the Lightning away and OTK him.

4th Round: Me vs True King Zoodiac (xx-)
Game 1: No out to Master Peace. I quicky scooped.

Game 2: Same as game 1, but I managed to survive longer, still doesn't make any difference.

5th Round: Me vs Pure Zoodiac (oxx)
Game 1: It was very tense game and we were running out of resource at the end. I manage to super poly-ed his 4400 ATK Bullhorn into Elysion and won.

Game 2: He summoned Drancia plus Emeral, then set 3. I activate Harpie's immediately during my turn and he responded with Imperial Order. With a lot of dead spells in my hand, I scooped right away.

Game 3: He used Dimensional Barrier 3 times this game, there is nothing I can do.


CLOSING THOUGHTS

I think the right time to drop Maxx "C" against Zoodiac is when they drop their first Xyz. Then, they will have to stop there or give me a draw by summoning Drancia. Whatever case it is, my Shaddoll Fusion gains the option to fuse from my deck. Effect Veiler is not really that great in this format. But it can be useful to Veiler their Daigusto Emeral to stop the recycling. But the opponent can just chain Drancia to pop their own emeral anyway. I am still considering to replace 3 copies of Effect Veiler with Psy-Framegear Gamma. I can't really afford to buy Ghost Ogre since it is about RM 60 per piece. I once consider to take out my Exciton Knight for Castel or Emeral, but I made my decision to stick with it after this local. Exciton allows unexpected comeback and most people don't even expect it anyway because they are trying too hard to stop the fusion summon. Since the Link format is coming, If I were to call some MVPs in my deck, I will have to say:

1) Super Polymerization
2) Shaddoll Fusion + El Shaddoll Winda
3) Merkabah the Eidolon Beast

I will probably stop huge card investment for a while since Link format is coming. Let's wait out and see. If I have some free time I will update this blog again. GoodBye

Card Design and Power Creep

If we were to think of a single set that completely change the game, what would it be? The answer for me is definitely Duelist Alliance. Why is it so? Because it introduces a new concept, everything replaces themselves. Maybe it is not entirely true to claim that Duelist Alliance introduced the concept of floating because cards like Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest existed long time ago. However, at the time of Sangan, floating is done reactively most of the time, where you normal summon or set it, wait for it to be destroyed, then trigger its effect. If your Sangan is fortunate enough to survive a turn, then you can use it as the tribute material for a high level monster, then trigger its effect. Either way, the self replacing process is slow but very good at that time. Actually the word floating also can be apply to cards with on summon effect, which means they already generate advantage when they are summoned so we don't have to care that much whether they are destroyed or not. For example, even though your opponent destroy your Elemental Hero Stratos, but he already replaces himself when you activates his effect to search for another hero.

Most of the Duelist Alliance archetypes are capable of summoning their boss monster without sacrifice their card advantage because every materials can replace themselves, and often thinning their deck at the same time. I am a long time Shaddoll player, so in this article I'll mostly use Shaddoll as an example. In a traditional fusion summon, you will need at least 2 monsters and a fusion spell. In terms of card advantage, you give up 3 cards to perform fusion summon of a fusion monster, that is technically a minus 2. That is why fusions are so bad during their initial release. However, if you resolve Shaddoll Fusion, even without using the "fuse from deck" part, the play is technically a minus 0 if you fusion summon El Shaddoll Winda and El Shaddoll Construct, and minus 1 for every fusion monsters of other attributes. And considering that almost all of the main deck Shaddoll monsters except dragon, have the effect that give you more cards when being sent to the graveyard, you can summon your fusion monsters first turn, the sit on the back of their oppressive effect. The effect that gives you more cards to work with is always more reliable than the effect that take away cards from your opponent because it will always do the same thing going first or second. Duelist Alliance not only introduces several archetypes that promote the use of floating boss monster, but also promote the use of boss monster usable on either first or second turn.

if you pay attention to the card text, you will see the design trend that attached to it. Most of the monsters of that era normally have 2 or 3 effects, but you can only activates one of the effect, and you can only activate that effect once per turn. I call this type of restriction "hard once per turn pick one effect".A Single monster can be given multiple effects that can be used in multiple situations, expanding the number of options. This type of design trend can be traced back to the era of Dragon Rulers, which also have this kind of "hard once per turn pick one effect" type of effects. Other duelist Alliance archetype such as Burning Abyss and Satellarknight also have this type of restriction. 

Let me ask you a question, what is the best Shaddoll main deck monster? You will probably have an answer right now. Then the next question is, how much better is the best Shaddoll main deck monster compared to the second best Shaddoll main deck monster?  Probably not that much. This is because all of them are created at nearly equal quality, and running all of them seems to be the most logical choice (except Shaddoll Hound). Because if you run all of 5 of them ( again except Hound ), and each of them has 2 effects which gives you 10 options to choose from. Even the worst card going first, Shaddoll Dragon is still being used at 1 copy due to it can provide additional options for player to work with. This is an important characteristic which will be compared to more recent deck later.  

I am going to hold pendulum design for later discussion, we will just be focusing on non-pendulum cards. After the long review about the previous trend or pattern in card design, what is the point of this article? Sorry if I sound too boring and repetitive, if you feel boring that is probably because I am talking about things that you already know. This paragraph will be focusing on the changes as we move along from set to set, this type of restriction called "hard once per turn pick one effect" is being removed from design and change to  "hard once per turn for every effect" when Nekroz became the most dominant archetype. Every Nekroz monster has 2 effects, one effect that activates in hand and another effect that activates on field, and you can activate both effects in a single turn. This is a very slight powercreep, but it is not a big deal as at one point, both Shaddoll and Nekroz has a very close amount of tops, suggesting that they can still beat each other even though Nekroz is a stronger deck. 

Honestly speaking, I love those time not only because decks are fun to play, it is also because power creep can be easily prevented just by releasing new archetype that has similar power level, but do things a little differently than the previous top deck. For example, when Shaddoll was the best deck, other extra deck strategies were absolute because Shaddoll Fusion punishes those who rely entirely on their extra deck boss, and El Shaddoll Winda can basically prevent the opponent from ever summoning a Xyz or a Synchro monster again. Then Konami decided to release Nekroz, a deck that punishes the use of extra deck but do not use extra deck itself. Nekroz is a hard counter to Shaddoll, so Shaddoll switched from OTK play style to playing control build with hand trap such as Effect Veiler in order to compete. Is Nekroz as a deck more powerful than Shaddoll? Definitely yes, but not by that much. If we were still in that era, and we assume that we were in an alternate time line that Konami never release EMEM ( or PEPE in TCG ) , but they release another archetype that counters the play style of Nekroz and Shaddoll but has a relatively similar power level to them, then hit them slightly if necessary ( but still playable at competitive level ), the meta would be evolving smoothly where the old deck would change their build to fight the new deck. But we know this will never happen because Konami is a business and they need to rotate out old product.       

I would also like to talk a little bit about pendulum card design. Pendulum card are actually easier to balanced than non-pendulum card. Why I say so? It is because we have more things to work with. The first one being their level. We can give them certain level which makes them not pendulum summonable or to remove certain synergy in their respective deck/archetype. For example, can you imagine how broken it is if Performapal Monkeyboard is Level 4? Other things we can use for balance are pendulum effect, pendulum scale and monster effect. I have not seen any pendulum monster with both its pendulum effect and monster effect to be amazingly great. The only few cards close to that is actually Performage Plushfire and Eccentric Archfiend. Performapal Monkeyboard actually has terrible monster effect, terrible level, meaningless type and attribute, and significant restriction when you look at it. The real restriction to the pendulum cards is space on the card board. There is only so many words you can print if you want all of them to be readable. There is almost no way to include those 'hard once per turn pick one effect" type of effects for pendulum monster. Combining with the fact that Konami decided to hit all the generic good pendulum support after the EMEM era, I believe that pendulum will be fine and balance in the near future. 

Recently, more and more archetype with only a few insanely good card, but with all the other support being unusable are becoming more and more common. For example, the Zoodiac Beast gave us the Zoodiac Beast Molmorat, Zoodiac Beast Viper being insanely good, but all other main deck Zoodiac Beast being subpar.Some other archetype like Phantom Knight, Speedroid, and Predplant also having the same story. This type of card design allow player to build a deck consist of the best card from different archetypes since all of them can "ignite" the whole engine just from one key card, allowing player to basically "compress" the whole engine into minimal size, the fill the deck size with other engine and generic good card. For example the famous SR PK Fire deck that top multiple YCS are created with this type of mindset. Even in OCG, decks like Eidolon Windwitch Artifact, Eidolon Zoodiac, Zoodiac True King start to take over the competition. Is this power creep in action? In my opinion, yes it is. And if you notice the card text, they no longer keep  the "hard once per turn" card text on most of the card. Zoodiac Beast Molmorat would be pretty balanced if it has that restriction. 

One card should never do that much for you. When a single Zoodiac Molmorat and result in 2 Rank 4 and one search, that is something wrong with the card design no matter how you look at it. The same goes for one card undestroyable Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon without using normal summon. I have given enough example, now let's go back to the root. How to prevent power creep and still sell cards? Maybe the history has shown us the answer. Just release a new deck, that do things differently than the previous top deck, but with similar power level. Then the old deck will adapt and maybe a diverse meta will form again, creating a format with multiple tier 1 decks. Banlist  should still be use to balance the game but not only just to forcefully rotate out old decks. 

6.86 Suggestion

STR HEROES


Huskar
Life Break now applys break

Lifestealer
Open Wounds mana cost reduced from 110 to 95/100/105/110
Level 1 Infest is no longer castable on ancient creep (level 2 and level 3 remain unchanged)

AGI HEROES


Lone Druid
Spirit Bear's bounty reduced from 300 to 150/200/250/300
Synergy now also increased Spirit Bear's armor by 1/2/3/4

Morphling 
Adaptive Strike no longer use a projectile if it deals maximum damage.

Razor
Unstable Current movement speed bonus increased from 4/8/12/16% to 7/10/13/16%

Venomancer
Plague Ward hp rescaled from 75/200/325/400 to 100/200/325/400
Poison Nova radius increased from 575 to 625

Microbot

Microbot Dragonfly
Level 1/DARK/Machine/Effect:
You can only use 1 of the following effects of "Microbot Dragonfly" per turn, and only once that turn.
1) If this card is in your hand or graveyard: You can discard 1 "Microbot" monster from your hand except this card; special summon this card.
2) You can banish 1 "Microbot" card from your graveyard; special summon 1 "Microbot" monster from your deck.
ATK 100/DEF 100

Microbot Scorpion
Level 1/DARK/Machine/Effect:
You can only use 1 of the following effects of "Microbot Scorpion" per turn, and only once that turn.
1) If this card is in your hand or graveyard: You can discard 1 "Microbot" monster from your hand except this card; special summon this card.
2) You can banish 1 "Microbot" card from your graveyard; add 1 "Microbot" monster from your deck to your hand.

ATK 100/DEF 100, Microbot Spider

Level 1/DARK/Machine/Effect:
You can only use 1 of the following effects of "Microbot Spider" per turn, and only once that turn.
1) If this card is in your hand or graveyard: You can discard 1 "Microbot" monster from your hand except this card; special summon this card.
2) You can banish up to 3 "Microbot" cards from your graveyard; Excavate equal number of cards from the top of your deck, then add 1 of them to your hand, after that, send the rest to your graveyard.
ATK 100/DEF 100

Microbot Mosquitoes
Level 1/DARK/Machine/Tuner/Effect:
You can only use 1 of the following effects of "Microbot Mosquitoes" per turn, and only once that turn.
1) If this card is in your hand or graveyard: You can discard 1 "Microbot" monster from your hand except this card; special summon this card.
2) You can banish up to 1 "Microbot" card from your graveyard; Increase the level of all face-up "Microbot" monsters you control by 1 until the end phase of this turn.
ATK 100/DEF 100

Microbot King Fisher
Level 1/DARK/Machine/Effect:
You can discard this card to add up to 2 "Microbot King Fisher" from your deck to your hand.
ATK 100/DEF 100

Microbot Crow
Level 1/DARK/Machine/Tuner/Effect:
You can only use each of the following effects of "Microbot Crow" per turn.
1) You can discard this card to banish 1 "Microbot" spell or trap card from your deck.
2) If this card in your graveyard is banished by a "Microbot" card's effect, you can target 1 banished "Microbot" card except "Microbot Crow"; add the target to your hand.
ATK 100/DEF 100

X-Microbot Chimera
Rank 1/DARK/Machine/Xyz/Effect:
2 level 1 Machine-type monster
This card gain 1000 ATK for each xyz material attached to it. Neither player can pendulum summon. During your standby phase: Detach 1 xyz material from this card. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 xyz material from this card; your opponent cannot add cards from their deck to their hand except by drawing them. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroy by battle. If this card has no xyz material attached to it, this card's effect is negated.
ATK 0/DEF 2000

X-Microbot Skull Dragon
Rank 1/DARK/Machine/Xyz/Effect:
3 level 1 Machine-type monster
This card gain 1000 ATK for each xyz material attached to it. Neither player can pendulum summon, also, effect of cards in pendulum zone are negated. During your standby phase: Detach 1 xyz material from this card. Once per turn, you can detach 1 xyz material from this card to target 1 monster that were special summoned from the extra deck; Shuffle it into the deck. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroy by battle. If this card has no xyz material attached to it, this card's effect is negated.
ATK 0/DEF 2000

X-Microbot Hydra
Level 4/DARK/Machine/Effect:
1 Machine-type Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monster
Neither player can pendulum summon. When this card is synchro summoned: You can add 1 banished "Microbot" card or 1"Microbot" card in your graveyard to your hand. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by battle. During either player's turn, if this is in your graveyard: You can banish this card from your graveyard to target 1 face-up "X-Microbot" monster you control, it gains 1000 ATK until the end phase of this turn. 
ATK 2000/DEF 2000

X-Microbot Cerberus
Rank 2/DARK/Machine/Xyz/Effect:
2 or more level 2 Machine-type monster
You can also xyz summon "X-Microbot Cerberus" once per turn by using a "Microbot" xyz monster as xyz material except "X-Microbot Cerberus". (Xyz material attached to that monster also become xyz material on this card.) Neither player can pendulum summon. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 xyz material from this card to target 1 face-up spell or trap card; destroy that card. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroy by battle.
ATK 2000/DEF 2000

Gathering of Microbot
Quick Play Spell
Send the top card of your deck to the graveyard; special summon 1 "Microbot" monster from your deck, if you do, you cannot special summon monsters this turn except "Microbot" monster. You can only activate 1 "Gathering of Microbot" per turn.

Microbot Replacement Unit
Normal Spell
Discard up to 2 "Microbot" cards, then draw that the same number of cards + 1. You can only activate 1 "Microbot Replacement Unit" per turn.

Microbot Unity Blast
Normal Trap
If you control a face-up "Microbot" monster, banish 1 "Microbot" card from your graveyard to target 1 card on the field, Destroy that card.

6.84 SUGGESTION

STR HERO

Alchemist
- Base armor increased by 1
- Chemical Rage now gives 200/400/600 bonus health during transformation


Axe
- Culling Blade kill move speed bonus rescaled from 40% to 20/30/40%
- Culling Blade kill attack speed bonus rescaled from 40 to 20/30/40
- Culling Blade kill speed duration reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds


 Beastmaster
- Inner Beast attack speed bonus increased from 15/25/35/45 to 25/35/45/55
- Aghanim's Scepter now increases the stun duration of Primal Roar by 1 second


Dragon Knight
- Elder Dragon Form bonus movement speed increased from 25 to 45
- Added Aghanim's Scepter effect:
// increases the level of Elder Dragon Form by 1
// added level 4 Elder Dragon Form
// Level 4: Gold Dragon, Shining Breath: apply negative buff which makes enemy miss 35% of their attack, slow movement speed by 30%, and attack speed by 20, of enemy units in Splash Attack range for 3 seconds, with Corrosive Breath added to the primary target. Further improve the cast range of Dragon Tail by 200, and makes Dragon Tail stun ignores Spell immunity.  


Lifestealer
- Open Wounds target now takes additional 15/20/25/30 damage from Lifestealer attack
- Infest cooldown reduced from 100 to 100/90/80 seconds


AGI HERO

Lone Druid
- Synergy now gives 2/4/6/8 bonus armor to Spirit Bear
- True Form bonus health increased from 250/400/600 to 250/450/650
- Battle Cry cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds


Luna
- Lucent Beam damage increased from 75/150/225/300 to 110/180/240/300
- Eclipse cooldown reduced from 160/150/140 to 160/130/100 seconds


Sniper
- Shrapnel mana cost increased from 50 to 75

- Take Aim now is toggleable, when activated increase attack range by 175/250/325/400 and reduced sniper's normal damage by 20%  

- Assassinate projectile now carries sniper normal attack which will 100% tigger Headshot.


Vengeful Spirit
- Vengeance Aura Death Attack Damage Reduction reduced from 12/20/28/36% to 6/10/14/18%


INT HERO

Keeper of Light
- Illuminate level 4 duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
- Mana Leak now has 0.5 second initial stun, and this 0.5 second is not included in the duration of this spell.

 
Outworld Devourer
- Base INT increased by 5


ITEM

Mask of Madness
- recipe cost increased by 200

TCG SHADDOLL

Monster(22)
3x Shaddoll Beast
2x Shaddoll Squamata
2x Shaddoll Dragon
3x Shaddoll Hedgehog
2x Shaddoll Falco
3x White Dragon Wyverburster
2x Black Dragon Collapserpent
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1x Felice Lightsworn Archer
3x Mathematician

Spell(9)
3x Shaddoll Fusion
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Book of Moon
1x Foolish Burial
1x Soul Charge

Trap(9)
3x Sinister Shadow Games
1x Shaddoll Core 
2x Breakthrough Skill
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Solemn Warning

Extra(15)
3x El Shaddoll Construct
3x El Shaddoll Winda
1x Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Arcanite Magician
1x Leo, Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer 
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1x Number 106: Giant Hand

EVILSWARM ADAPTATION IN SHADDOLL FORMAT

I wrote about Evilswarm in my past post, which is shown below:

http://goaychanhong.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-versatility-of-evilswarm.html

However, Evilswarm would have to adapt in order to survive. The question is, how would we adapt? Forbidden Dress would be replaced by Forbidden Chalice simply because it can get around all kind of flip effect as well as El Shaddoll Winda. Unlike other effect negation cards, Forbidden Chalice can be activated during damage step, meaning that it can stop the flip effect even if you attack into a face-down monster. This alone makes this card better than other effect negation cards. Evilswarm don't really fear El Shaddoll Winda because we usually don't rely on special summon to swarm the field. Evilswarm Castor and Evilswarm Kerykeion both give us an additional normal summon. However, our Rescue Rabbit and Evilswarm Mandragora are both being shut down by El Shaddoll Winda since we can't Xyz summon after we use the effect of these monsters. Forbidden Chalice as a quick play spell, enable us to shut down El Shaddoll Winda's effect and make play right away.

Evilswarm Ophion can shut down Shaddoll Fusion. However, Evilswarm Ophion is not an auto win since shaddoll has many outs to him. Protecting Evilswarm Ophion is important and can be determining point between winning and losing. Both Shaddoll Dragon and Shaddoll Lizard can kill Evilswarm Ophion with their flip effects. In addition, Black Dragon Collapserpent and White Dragon Wyverburster are popular main deck card in shaddoll deck. These card enable shaddoll players to spam rank 4 to get rid of our Ophion. Forbidden Chalice can deal with these problems quite effectively.

I have make some small changes to the deck list:


DECKLIST

Monster(16)
3 Evilswarm Castor
3 Evilswarm Heliotrope
3 Evilswarm Mandragora
3 Evilswarm Kerykeion
3 Evilswarm Thunderbird
1 Rescue Rabbit

Spell(12)
3 Infestation Pandemic
3 Mythical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Chalice
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole

Trap(12)
3 Fiendlish Chain
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Vanity Emptiness
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Infestation Infection
1 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck(15)
3 Evilswarm Ophion
2 Evilswarm Excition Knight
1 Evilswarm Bahamut
1 Evilswarm Ouroboros
1 Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer
2 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Number 66: Master Key Beetle
1 Number 82: Heartandraco

The Versatility of Evilswarm (2014)

Evilswarm is a control deck with stun option against certain decks. When Evilswarm is not played as a stun deck, it can be played as a rank 4 toolbox or a beatdown deck.  

For me, I don't like meta decks that much, hence I must find a way to deal with them or I will suffer a lot of losses. Dueling became more and more challenging over time. Meta decks constantly evolve and become much harder to side against. For example, Hand Artifact Traptrix of today is much harder to side against compared to Lightsworn of 2010. Most of the meta decks of today are versatile, means that they won't auto-lose to side deck any more. The XYZ monsters obviously changed the game. In the past, you can't get rid of Macro Cosmos unless you draw a MST, now you can get around that just by summoning 2 monsters with the same level. Even worse, some of the side deck cards may hurt you as well, just not as much as it would hurt your opponent. Hence, it is very important for me to have a versatile deck, so that I can adapt to the meta without changing my main deck.

Evilswarm is my choice. This is because it is one of the most versatile deck. Basically, most of the meta decks are highly dependent on:
1) Special summon
2) Graveyard
3) Searching
Evilswarm is still helped by these, but if compared to the meta decks, it is a non factor. This makes Evilswarm harder to side against. All of the Evilswarm main deck monsters can be normal summon, and have respectable ATK in today's standard. Meaning that, Evilswarm can still do things even without special summon. Special mention to Evilswarm Thunderbird, as it is very hard to get rid of. Sometimes, Thunderbird alone can apply enough pressure to my opponent and force them to waste cards on him. Evilswarm do not care about their graveyard as much as other decks do. Evilswarm Kerykeion is the only card that utilize the graveyard. As we all know, Kerykeion is the best monster in the deck as its effect is basically one card XYZ. For me, other monsters in the deck are good standalone monsters too, just not as good as Thunderbird and Kerykeion.

However, the main reason why this deck is so good is because of its boss monster, Evilswarm Ophion. This card searches Infestation Pandemic which protects all Evilswarm monsters from S/T for a turn. This is why he is so hard to get rid of. Also, he single-handedly shut down Artifacts and Dragon Rulers and other high level monsters. In the past Dragon Ruler format, Evilswarm gained its place in the meta because of this card. Due to Evilswarm Castor, this card can be summoned in first turn, and lock down your opponent. He has respectable 2550 ATK for an easily summonable monster. In the future, I believe he will be a great card since he can also shut down Qliphoth.

Get rid of the mind set that Evilswarm is an Ophion deck only. This deck is more than just Ophion. This deck can function as a rank 4 toolbox or a beat down deck. When I play against decks that don't special summon high level monster such as Fire Fist, Ophion can become a huge beat stick since he is protected by Pandemic. In such match-up, summoning Ophion is no longer priority, but he is still useful in this situation. Evilswarm Excition Knight is also another great boss monster for this deck. Although every rank 4 decks can use him, pandemic might makes a different since he is also protected by pandemic.

Back to the topic, why is Evilswarm my deck choice? It is because they are highly adaptable. It is no longer the top deck, however it still survive every format and adapt to the meta. This is because the deck is not a combo deck. A combo deck need to maximize its consistency, hence siding is often not as beneficial because it lowers the consistency of the deck. Evilswarm has no such problem. Also, Evilswarm can utilize Vanity Emptiness very well to lock down the opponent. Evilswarm can also main or side float gate cards like Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure without difficulties. Besides that, as most control decks do, Evilswarm has the ability to run hugh amount of back row. Unlike Dragon Rulers which can't run trap effectively, this is a huge advantage. And that is the reason why we don't describe dragon ruler as adaptable.


DECKLIST

Monster(16)
3 Evilswarm Castor
3 Evilswarm Heliotrope
3 Evilswarm Mandragora
3 Evilswarm Kerykeion
3 Evilswarm Thunderbird
1 Rescue Rabbit

Spell(12)
3 Infestation Pandemic
3 Mythical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Dress
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole

Trap(12)
3 Fiendlish Chain
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Vanity Emptiness
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Infestation Infection
1 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck(15)
3 Evilswarm Ophion
2 Evilswarm Excition Knight
1 Evilswarm Bahamut
1 Evilswarm Ouroboros
2 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Number 106: Giant Hand
1 Number 66: Master Key Beetle
1 Number 82: Heartandraco


CARD CHOICES

Forbidden Dress VS Black Horn of Heaven
I fell that Forbidden Dress is a better choice here simply because it is a good card in most of the match up. When I play against deck like Geargia, although not as usefull, Dress can still act as an ATK modifier. Evilswarm has good match up against Lightsworn Ruler as Ophion just shut down most of their cards. However, a random Lightsworn Ryko can still blow up the Ophion. If my Ophion attacks a face-down Ryko, Dress can safe my Ophion. However, be reminded that Ryko can choose another target (if any) that is not protected by Dress. I do not care that much as long as I can protect my Ophion when I play against Lightsworn Ruler. Dress can still protect Ophion when he attacks into random flip effect monster such as Penguin Soilder but it will not protect the Ophion when the Penguin Soilder is flip summoned. Against Mermail, Dress also protect Ophion from Atlantean Heavy Infrantry. In the Fire Fist match up, Dress is also extremely good since it protect Evilswarm monsters from Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear and leaves Ophion at 1950 ATK which is still bigger than most of the Fire Fist monsters. Black Horn of Heaven is just Bad against Shadoll since it can't stop fusion summon. Besides that, Dress is a very good card against Shadoll Dragon and Shadoll Lizard. For the HATE match up, although Ophion can shut down the artifacts, we still need Dress against Fire Hand. Hence, running Dress is probably a better choice. One extra tips I would like to share, you can activate Dress and target your Ophion when they summon their Number 101. If you do, your opponent can't target Ophion with Number 101. But, your Ophion's ATK will drop down to 1950 which is lower than 2100 of Number 101.


MATCH UP

H.A.T.E.
We are both good and bad against them. The good thing is Ophion can shut down the Artifact monsters, the bad thing is both the Hand and Traptrix engines are generally big problems. My win rate against HATE is about 40%, certainly not impressive. Ophion is far away from auto win in this match up, since it can be easily destroyed by a Fire Hand. Even cards like Traptrix Dionaea can give me some trouble in this match up. Evilswarm Thunderbird is amazing in this match up, you can force them to waste their resource to get rid of your Thunderbird. Based on my personal experiences, Dimensional Prison and Forbidden Dress is good in this match up since both of them help me to deal with Hand monsters. I usually will not try to attack a set monster unless I have a Forbidden Dress since the set monster is Fire Hand most of the time.

GEARGIA
I have only about 40% win rate against Geargia. In this match up, Black Horn of Heaven is a much better card than Forbidden Dress and you should side out the Dress. I can't write much here since my experience against this deck is quite lacking.

MERMAIL
Ophion can shut down their level 7 monsters, but they have many ways to get rid of Ophion. If possible, spare your Mystical Space Typhoon(MST) for their Abyss-sphere. Do not blind MST since if you hit their Abyss-sphere, they can just chain it. They use Atlantean Heavy Infrantry to get rid of your Ophion, and they do it easily. Hence, it is a good idea to have a Forbidden Dress set. You should also watch out for their Rank 4 play since they can do it quite frequently. Try to side in some graveyard hate cards such as Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos. Vanity Emptiness can also lock them down since they rely heavily on special summoning. Remember not to chain Dress to the effect of Number 101, it will be too late. You must activate the Dress when they xyz summon Number 101.

LIGHTSWORN RULER
One of the best match up, Ophion alone shut down the deck. I have around 70% win rate against this deck. The possible ways for them to get rid of Ophion are Lightsworn Ryko, Honest and Rank 4 XYZs. If you play smart, you should probably have Dress when you attack a face down monster to get around Ryko effect. You should also attack an attack position monster with your less important monster to avoid Honest. I do not worry about their back row since Lightsworn Ruler deck run low amount of traps. Vanity Emptiness is godly in this match up. I can chain Vanity Emptiness to their play such as Lightsworn Lumina, Soul Charge or Lightsworn Wulf which I can stop them from special summoning any monster. I can also flip up my Vanity Emptiness when they manage to have 2 level 4 monsters to stop them from summoning a XYZ monster. However, do watch out for Royal Decree since they will probably side in this card in game 2 and game 3. Pure Lightsworn is slightly more troublesome, but at least they can't drop Judgement Dragon on me easily.

FIRE FIST
This match up is quite easy. Spare your MST for their Tenki, with that I stop the search and I also get rid of a Bear's food. I try to use my back row wisely to stop their play. I tend to have advantage in back row game with Evilswarm Ophion, Infestation Pandemic and Evilswarm Thunderbird. Forbidden Dress is extremely good in this match up since it protect my monster from Bear's effect. If I use Dress on my Ophion, Ophion still has 1950 ATK which they can't beat without using a XYZ monster. This match up used to be hard, it became easy since Coach Soldier Wolfbark was limited.

BUJIN
Hard match up, but not unwinable. I just rely on small good plays instead on Ophion. Numbers 103: Ragna Zero is good in this match-up since they usually have a face-up Fire Formation - Tenki. Since her effect is a quick effect, you can get ride of 2 Bujingi cards with her effect.

Prediction

HERO (MAIN EVENT PREDICTION)
1. Most of the top heroes will remain their status during the main event.

2. Skywrath Mage will experience fall in popularity due to being much higher valued by the western teams than the eastern teams. With the fall of western team, this hero will not be 1st pick material. Also, the hero itself is a bit risky and provide no lock down to the team.

3. Razor will experience fall in popularity due to having low win rate of 38.2% despite being the most picked hero. Team will now try to think twice before picking him. He will remain top pick material, but will not be picked too early in the draft.

4. Same as Skywrath Mage, Wraith King will no longer be popular because most of the western teams were eliminated.

5. Death Prophet will rise in popularity compared to group stage, but not in a huge way.

6. Shadow Shaman will replace Skywrath Mage to be the most contested support.

7. Io will be completely fall off, and will only be picked up by a few teams.

8. Earth Shaker will be picked more. He is a great pick for the "long range sniper" strategy used by a lot of teams. What I mean here is a strategy to kill the opponent from long range with combination of nukes.

9. Despite being popular pick before TI4, Silencer will remain under picked.

10. Luna will get picked up more during the main event due to being great in all stage of the game and can be used in early push.

11. Morphling is the most successful carry in the group stage, and will remain so in the main event.

12. Strategy with double carry plus big team fight will be the most successful strategy in this tournament.

TEAMS (PREDICTION)
1. Navi will not enter final this year.

2. C9 will not enter final this year.

3. VG will have slight edge over Newbee.

4. If EG get radiant side, they will likely lose the game.

5. DK will have slight advantage over EG.

6. Please don't bet for lower bracket since anything can happen there.

Dota 2 Strategy

Dota2 is a game of skill and strategy. No strategy or line up can be said as the best as all strategy has its pros and cons. However, some of the strategies can be said as more stable simply because they allow more room for mistake. For example, I wouldn't consider a 5 carries line up as a valid strategy because it would be impossible for the team to reach late game since their early game is terrible. Also, I don't like a no carry pusher team because if you fail to take a lane of rax before 20 minutes, you simply lose the game.

So, what is a good strategy? A good strategy simply has room for mistake, or we can say alternative plan. In this meta, many of strategies are viable. In other words, this meta is volatile. I will go through some strategies and explain in details.


Duo Cores (双核)
2 core means double carry, and usually this kind of line-up has 2 main damage dealer. The other 3 usually provide utility and disable in ganking and team fight. Usually this type of strategy has balanced amount of early game and late game which means it has more room for mistake. One of the advantages for this strategy is that when playing from behind, teams can simply switch from 3-protect-2 to 4-protect-1. When it has a great early start, this line up can also take the fight to opponent. This type of line up use the resource in the most reasonable way. This is because in most of the game, only 2 lanes can provide good farm (usually for position 1 and 2). Hence, an additional carry is often not an ideal choice since he won't get enough farm to come online in the mid game. Thus, make the team vulnerable to mid game aggression. However, this type of line up require decent laning phase to take it to the mid game. But, falling slightly behind in early game is still manageable. In this case, the team can try to play 4-protect-1 style to create space for the main carry. Then use the super-farmed 1 position to create space for the rest of the team. However, this is just doable but not ideal. Split pushing ability is important in this kind of line up. Usually, at least one great split pusher is needed in this type of line up. Split pushing is one of the best way to get farm and in the same time, create space for the rest of the team. Lastly, counter initiation is important too. Since the opponents will try to gank the cores, counter initiation can be crucial to survive the gank. This type of style is mostly used by team DK. There is 1 more thing to mention, the carries must be good in the late game or else this strategy will fall apart.

Best Against    : 4-protect-1
Worst Against : none

4-protect-1 and duo cores has almost the same playstyle and both wish to take it late. However, duo cores has better late game due to having 1 more core. Hence, if the game is dragged to very late game, the single core will be out carried by the double cores. This makes the playstyle of 4-protect-1 very ineffective against duo cores. The duo cores has no particularly bad match up because of its sheer versatility. However, it can be caught off guard with intense early game aggression followed by huge pushing power.

Example : 1) Morphling
                2) Viper
                3) Tide Hunter
                4) Minara
                5) Lion
or
                1) Tiny
                2) Puck
                3) Nature's Prophet
                4) Treant Protector
                5) Io


Tri Cores Rush Face(三核冲脸)
Basically, 3 cores itself has 2 styles and both of them are completely different. One of them is focused on mid-game aggression and the other one is considered super greedy late game strategy. Since the former is far more popular, we will only discuss about the mid-game aggression 3 cores. This style is first used by Newbee. I think that this style is actually very flexible and has enough fire power in early, mid and late game. This type of style does not require team to run hard carry. Instead, they run 3 semi carries. Also, at least 2 cores are tanky so that they can act as front line. This type of strategy rely on their support during the early game to make rotation to secure the early advantage. Then, they will force the fight and take down tower by tower. Hence, picking the aggressive support is one of the key to its success. One of the advantages of this strategy is that it is extremely strong in mid game and still can hold its ground in late game. Also, there is almost no boundary between position 1, 2 and 3. Meaning that the 3 cores can exchange their position on farm priority based on the need of the team. This is very different from 4-protect-1 and duo cores where the farm priority is clear. Also, the initiator is extremely important for this strategy. With powerful initiation, they can take the fight to opponent. With tanky core and powerful team fight, they will force the fight with initiation and once they win the fight, they will take down the tower. Lastly, Meka carrier is important in this strategy since they need to group up and fight very early on. Hence, in this type of strategy, the Meka carrier is often given farm in the early game to secure fast Meka timing. However, split push seems to be biggest weakness of this type of strategy. Tanky cores and initiators are usually not mobile and they tend to be bad split pusher. Split pushing can delay their mid game aggression and avoid the fight. Powerful counter initiation can also counter this type of playstyle effectively.

Best Against    : greedy line up with 3 or more cores
Worst Against : split push with good late game

Usually, greedy line up lacks of counter initiation and counter push ability. This makes it weak against the rush face strategy. Also, in the early to mid game, tanky cores with early Meka are very hard to be brought down. Thus, they can group up and push down tower without fear. However, split push is one of the best counter to the rush face strategy.

Example: 1) Viper
               2) Brewmaster
               3) Doom
               4) Enchantress
               5) Rubick
or
               1) Viper
               2) Death Prophet
               3) Tide Hunter
               4) Enchantress
               5) Shadow Shaman


4-Protect-1(四保一)
This used to be the "go to" strategy in TI2. But, with huge amount of changes to the game, this is no longer the case. Nowadays, the 4-protect-1 style no longer has the late game advantage. This is due to the popularity of duo cores and tri cores. These type of strategy can hold their own in the late game against 4-protect-1, and offer much more flexibility. As said by LD, never put all the egg in 1 basket, and this is the story of today. However, this is still doable given in the right situation. This type of style is mainly used by Fnatic and occasionally, team DK. In the early game, 4 players must be able to play 4 v 5 before the carry comes online. Hence, heroes choice is extremely important. Also, the picks must have really good synergy with the carry in order to have good late game. I will not try to explain in a very detailed way since this is considered out-dated and is commonly known by everybody.

Example: 1) Tinker
               2) Brewmaster
               3) Beastmaster
               4) Visage
               5) Treant Protector
or
               1) Naga Siren
               2) Puck
               3) Elder Titan
               4) Lion
               5) Disruptor

3.5 AXIS FIRE FIST

TOWER DEFENSE

Arrow Shooting Tower
***
EARTH/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then add 1 "Tower" monster card from your deck to your hand except "Arrow Shooting Tower".
500/1700

Iron Wall Tower
***
EARTH/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then place 1 "Tower Counter" on this card (max 1). This card gains 300 DEF for each "Tower Counter" placed on this card. If a face-up defense position "Tower" monster would be destroy, you can remove 1 "Wall Counter" from this card instead.
300/1900

Freezing Tower
****
WATER/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then target 1 card on the field; return the target to the Deck.
800/2000

Flame Tower
****
FIRE/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then increase this card ATK by 500. During your Main Phase 1, you can tribute this card in face-up Defense Position to destroy 1 card your opponent controls, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. If you do, it is the end phase of this turn. During your Standby Phase, if you control a face-up Defense Position "Tower" monster, you can add this card from your graveyard to your hand. This effect of "Flame Tower" can only be used once per turn.
2000/800

Laser Beam Tower
****
LIGHT/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then special summon 1 "Tower" monster from your deck in face-up Defense Position except "Laser Beam Tower".
1000/1600

Cannon Tower
****
EARTH/Rock/Effect
This card is change to Defense Position when it is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned successfully. This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can negate the attack, then draw 1 card.
1200/1800

Holy Tower - Heaven Judgement
****
LIGHT/Rock/Xyz
2 Level 4 Rock-Type monsters
This card can attack while it is in Defense Position. If you control this card in face-up Defense Position, all Spell and Trap cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent card's effect. Once per turn, if this card in face-up Defense Position is attacked by an opponent's monster, you can special summon 1 "Tower" monster from your hand or Graveyard, then switch the attack target to that monster. If this card in face-up Defense Position would be destroyed, you can destroy other face-up defense position "Tower" monster instead. If this card has Xyz materials, your opponent cannot Special Summon monsters. During your Standby-Phase, you must detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then increase this card DEF by 500.
1500/2500

Tower Blocked the Way
Normal Trap
This card can only be activated in your opponent's turn, if you control a face-up Defense Position "Tower" monster, change all monster your opponent currently controls to Attack Position and negate their effect until the end of this turn. All Attack Position monsters must attack if possible during this turn.

Tower Unpassable Defense
Counter Trap
This card can only be activated if you control a face-up Defense Position "Tower" monster, negate the activation of your opponent's Spell/Trap card.

NEW CARD IDEA BASED ON FLIP EFFECT

MAIN MONSTER

Masked Beast - Balrog Dog
**
DARK/Beast/Effect
FLIP: Destroy 1 card on the field. When this card is flipped face-up, destroyed it during the end phase of that turn.
1000/500

Masked Beast - Spirit Cat
**
DARK/Beast/Effect
FLIP: Select up to 2 cards on the field except this card, return the selected cards to the hand. When this card is flipped face-up, destroyed it during the end phase of that turn.
500/1000

Masked Beast - Dark Falcon
**
DARK/Winged-Beast/Effect
FLIP: Select 1 "Masked Beast" monster and special summon it to your field in face-down defense position except "Masked Beast - Dark Falcon". When this card is flipped face-up, destroyed it during the end phase of that turn.
0/1500

Masked Beast - Battle Ox
***
EARTH/Beast/Effect
FLIP: Draw 1 card. This card cannot be destroyed by battle. This card cannot attack your opponent directly. During your end phase, destroy this card if it is face-up on your field.
1500/500

Masked Beast - Baphomet
***
DARK/Beast/Effect
FLIP: Select 1 "Masked Beast" monster you control, change the level of all "Masked Beast" monsters you currently control to the level of selected monster. This card cannot be destroyed by battle. This card cannot attack your opponent directly. During your end phase, destroy this card if it is face-up on your field.
1300/700

Masked Beast - Underworld Serpent
***
DARK/Reptile/Effect
Flip: Special summon 2 "Masked Beast" monsters with the same level in your graveyard. Immediately after this effect resolves, xyz summon a "Masked Beast" xyz monster using those 2 monsters only. This card cannot be destroyed by battle. This card cannot attack your opponent directly. During your end phase, destroy this card if it is face-up on your field.
1100/900

Masked Beast - Ghost Fire Fox
**
DARK/Beast/Effect
During your main phase, you can send this card from your hand to your graveyard. If you do, up to twice per turn, you can change a face-down monster you control into face-up attack position. You can only activate the effect of "Masked Beast - Ghost Fire Fox" per turn.
750/750


BOSS MONSTER

Masked Beast King - Doom Unicorn
**
DARK/Beast/Xyz
2 x level 2 "Masked Beast" monsters
If you control face-down defense position monster, this card cannot be selected as an attack target and cannot be destroyed by card effects. This card gains 200 ATK for each face-down monster you control. Once per turn, you can detach 1 xyz material from this card, special summon 1 "Masked Beast" monster from your graveyard in face-down defense position. Each time a "Masked Beast" monster is flipped face-up, inflict 800 damage to your opponent.
1400/600

Masked Beast King - Shadow Lion
***
DARK/Beast/Xyz
2 x level 3 "Masked Beast" monsters
If you control face-down defense position monster, this card cannot be selected as attack target and cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once during either player's turn, you can detach 1 xyz material from this card to activates one of these effects:
- select 1 face-up monster and change it to face-down defense position.
- select 1 face-down monster and change it to face-up attack position.
Each time a "Masked Beast" monster is flipped face-up, inflict 800 damage to your opponent. During your end-phase, you can attach 1 "Masked Beast" monster to this card as xyz material, then draw 1 card. This effect can only be activated once per turn.
2000/1000


SPELL

Masked Beast Call
Normal Spell
Add 1 "Masked Beast" monster from your deck to your hand, if you do, you cannot normal summon or special summon monsters in face-up position until the end of this turn. You can only activate 1 "Masked Beast Reinforcement" per turn.

Masked Beast Draw
Quick-Play Spell
Activate this card only if you control a face-down monster or a "Masked Beast" monster (at least 1). Draw 2 cards, then send 1 "Masked Beast" card to your graveyard, and if you do not, skip your next 2 draw phases. You can only activate 1 "Masked Beast Draw" per turn.


TRAP

Masked Beast Mirror
Normal Trap
Special summon 1 level 3 or lower "Masked Beast" monster from your graveyard in face-down defense position. Immediately after this effect resolves, change it to face-up attack position. You can only activate 1 "Masked Beast Mirror" per turn.

6.80 SUGGESTION

STR

Brewmaster
- base INT increased by 4

Treant Protector
- Leech Seed cast range increased from 350 to 500

Beastmaster
- STR increased from 2.2 to 2.6
- Armor increased by 1

Lycan
- Lycan wolf HP increased from 200/240/280/320 to 240/280/320/360
- Lycan wolf base damage increased by 5

Undying
- Decay damage rescaled from 20/60/100/140 to 35/70/105/140
- Tombstone cooldown reduced from 60 to 45

AGI

Juggernaut
- Base movement speed increased from 305 to 315

Morphling
- Adaptive Strike damage increased from (20/40/80/80 + 0.25 to 0.5/1/1.5/2 x AGI) to (25/50/75/100 + 0.25 to 0.5/1/1.5/2 x AGI)
- Base damage increased by 4

Spectre
- Spectral Dagger damage type changed to pure damage

Slark
- Shadow Dance bonus movement speed reduced from 30/35/40% to 25/30/35%

DOTA 6.79 SUGGESTION

Alchemist
>>Unstable Concotion
-damage rescaled from 150/220/290/360 to 120/200/280/360
-cooldown rescaled from 16 seconds at all levels to 22/20/18/16 seconds

Batridder
>>Sticky Napalm
-mana cost increased from 20 to 30
-turn rate slow rescaled from 70% to 40/50/60/70%

Beastmaster
-STR gain increased from 2.2 to 2.6
>>Call of the Wild
-boar attack range increased from 550 to 650 

Brewmaster
-base INT increased by 4

Crystal Maiden
>>Frostbite
-range increased from 500 to 600

Dragon Knight
>>Dragon Tail
-Stun duration rescaled from 2.5/2.75/3/3.25 to 1.75/2.25/2.75/3.25

Faceless Void
-BAT improved from 1.7 to 1.6
>>Time Walk
-slow duration increase from 3 seconds to 4 seconds

Gyrocopter
-base armor reduced by 2
>>Call Down
-cooldown rescaled from 55/50/45 to 75/60/45

Invoker
-base damage increased by 4

Io
>>Tether
-bonus movement speed reduced from 17% at all levels to 11/13/15/17%
-can no longer be used on creep

Juggernaut
-movement speed increased by 10

Lifestealer
-base STR reduced by 2
>>Infest
-now has maximum duration of 40/50/60 seconds

Lone Druid
>>Summon Spirit Bear
-Spirit Bear's bounty rescaled from 300 to 200/250/300/350

Luna
>>Lucent Beam
-damage increased from 75/150/225/300 to 100/175/250/325
>>Eclipse
-cooldown reduced from 160/150/140 seconds to 160/140/120 seconds

Lycanthrope
>>Summon Wolves
-Lycan wolf's hit points increased from 200/240/280/320 to 250/300/350/400
>>Shapeshift
-bonus armor increased from 1 at all levels to 1/3/5

Morphling
-base damage increased by 6

Naga Sirem
-movement speed reduced by 5
-base armor reduced by 2

Nature's Prophet
>>Nature's Call
-Treant's bounty increased from 21-26 to 38-43

Spectre
-base STR increased by 2

Tiny
>>Avalanche
-range increased from 600 to 750

Undying
>>Decay
-damage rescaled from 20/60/100/140 to 30/60/90/120
-STR stolen rescaled from 4 at all levels to 3/4/5/6

Venomancer
>>Venomous Gale
-mana cost reduced from 125 to 110
-cooldown reduced from 22 seconds to 17 seconds

Visage
>>Soul Assumption
-cooldown rescaled from 4 seconds at all levels to 7/6/5/4 seconds

Weaver
-base damage reduced by 4
>>Time Lapse
-mana cost increased from 150/75/0 to 150 at all levels

Zues
>>Arc Lightning
-mana cost reduced from 65/70/75/80 to 50/55/60/65
>>Lightning Bolt
-cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds
-cast range increased from 700 to 850
>>Thundergod's Wrath
-sight/true sight duration increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds
-cooldown reduced from 90 seconds at all levels to 90/75/60 seconds

CARRY HERO ANALYSIS

The Changes of Meta

During 6.72, the meta were more about split push and 4 pretect 1 strategy. The top carry heroes of that time were Anti Mage and Spectre. Occasionally, Weaver and Faceless Void were picked up by teams. All of those carry have 1 thing in common, mobility. Mobility for carry heroes was so important in 6.72 meta because teams liked to pick single core line-up. As we know, a carry without mobility can be kited easily with items like Force Staff and Ghost Scepter. Mobility also serves as escape mechanism. In the early game, teams liked to just sit back and farm up their carry. Anti Mage wa the dominating carry in because of his ability to farm and split push. Spectre is also very mobile, and is considered one of the best team fight carry.

When 6.74 came out, the meta had changed significantly. The meta game of that time was more pushing oriented. The top carry heroes of that time are Morphling, Lycan, Lone Druid and Naga Siren. The meta game had sped  up compared to previous version. This forced teams to pick up carry heroes that are capable to fight in early game. Morphling is considered very powerful even in early game with high burst damage and insane escape machanism. Lycan and Lone Druid are very good pushers hence they can help their team to take down towers and secure their gold advantage. Naga Siren was picked for her insane team fight set-up as well as being a counter pick to Lycan. In late 6.74 Anti Mage was picked up quite a lot to counter Morphling.

During 6.75, deathball meta was born. The meta game was about early game team fight and aggression. With this kind of fast-paced meta, traditional hard carry like Anti Mage and Spectre simply need to much farm to come online and their popularity decreased. Teams switched to some carry heroes with great early game presence such as Luna, Lone Druid and Lifestealer. Phantom Lancer was picked occasionally by some teams. Anti Mage was still popular among chinese team.

For 6.77, the meta was basically the same as 6.75. Gyrocopter was being discovered and quicky gained his popularity. Gyrocopter is strong in all stages of game, and he has insane team fight contribution. Spectre had made a return to the meta game because she get some nice buff to her spell. She can basically just sit back and farm and use her ultimate whenever the team fight occurs. Alchemist was also picked by some teams. In this meta, teams usually picked at least 2 carry and tried to farm up both. For example, Lone Druid and Lifestealer combo was used a lot by team IG.

Meta Game of Today

We are now playing the 6.78 version. Meta game of today is similar to the deathball, but with more variation to it. Early game aggression is even becoming more common. Teams like to play aggressive trilane to shut down their enemy. Teams are more focused on gaining the map control and tried to force out early game team fight. Ganking is big part of this meta game as killing a hero now give much more assist gold. Duo-core or tri-core line-up are always picked up. 4-protect-1 strategy is just too risky because teams will tried to shut down that 1 position carry as much as possible. Most of the popular carry heroes are very good laner by themselves or they can contribute in early game team fight.

Now, let's go through the popular carry of 6.78

Gyrocopter

This hero is kinda hot now. His early game is unmatched by any other carry with his high nuking power. Rocket Barrage deals huge damage in the early game. This makes him a very good trilane carry. He can also provide a much needed follow-up stun. His ultimate is very strong team fight ability and can completely turn the fight if used correctly. Not to forget, his ultimate go through magic immunity (slow only). Flak Cannon is very good in both farming and team fight. Although this spell get a cooldown nefted recently, it is still insanely good. In my opinion, this hero completely outshine Luna with higher reliability throughout the game.

Alchemist

This hero is very versatile as he can be played by several different ways. If he get a free farm lane, he can max his Greevil's Greed and get massive farm advantage. If he faces against enemy trilane, he can max his stun and try to help his allies. If he faces against pushing line-up, he can max his Acid Spray for defensive purpose. His ultimate is one of the transformation spell, giving him huge HP bonus, regeneration and insane attack speed. As we see, he can easily get 6-slotted around 25-30 minutes and become completely unstoppable. However, he is not very good in very late game because he is not very mobile. 

Spectre

This hero make a return to meta game because she get some huge buffs in previous version. Teams no longer play her as passive farming hero until she get Radiance. The meta game is not allowing it anymore. Today, players like to build Phase Boot, Drum into Diffusal Blade. This build allow her to participate in early game team fight. Haunt is such a good spell that it even deserved its spot as one of the best ultimate. It make spectre can keep on farming and she can choose to help her team whenever she wants. She also has superior mobility to keep on chasing her victim down. She is very hard to gank due to good escaping ability as well as being tanky. This hero is probably one of the best late game team fight carry if she get enough farm. However, she is weak before her level 6 and this means that she need a lot of protection before that.

Lone Druid

This hero was one of the most picked and banned hero in 6.77 version. He get some nefts in the latest version. Although not huge, but is enough to knock him down from top tier. He still has his strength and is still a worthy pick. He is one of the strongest laner and doesn't need any help in 1 vs 1 situation. Hence, supports are free to rotate. He is also extremely tanky after level 6, it means that he is not vulnerable to gank. His Spirit Bear is probably the strongest summon in the game. By using his Spirit Bear, his team can stay back and kinda slow siege towers. This is actually his biggest strength because his team can push with minimum risk. However, he can no longer buy Armlet on his bear. Hence, teams are forced to go for Radiance or MaelStrom build. 

6.78 CHANGELOG (SUGGESTION)

Alchemist
- Chemical Rage's bonus HP increased from 300/600/900 to 400/700/1000

Axe
Berserker's Call duration increased from 1.5/2/2.5/3 to 2/2.5/3/3.5

Beast Master
- STR gain increased from 2.2 to 2.6

Crystal Maiden
-Froze Bite duration increased from 1.5/2/2.5/3 to 2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds

Enigma
-Blackhole now last for 4/5/6 seconds

Invoker
-Base damage increased by 8

IO
-Tether mana cost increased from 40 to 60
-Overcharge HP/mana drain decreased from 3.5% to 3%

Lone Druid
- Spirit Bear now has 250 gold bounty

Luna
-Lucent Beam damage increased from 75/150/225/300 to 120/160/240/300

Lycan
- Summon Wolf mana cost reduced from 145 to 115/125/135/145

Magnus
-Skewer mana cost increased from 80 to 120
-Reverse Polarity stun duration rescale from 2.25/3/3.75 to 2.5/3/3.5 seconds

Morphling
-Morph mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
-Adaptive strike damage increased to 25/50/75/100 + 0.25 to 0.75/1.25/1.75/2.25 x AGI
-Base damage increased by 4

Nyx Assassin
-Spike Carapace mana cost increased from 40 to 40/50/60/70

Phantom Assassin
-Leveling ultimate now give her an active spell
Fatal Blow
Next attack has 100% to deal critical damage that ignore 75% armor. After the attack, ultimate is disabled for 6 seconds. Last 10 seconds and has 25 seconds cooldown. Mana cost is 75/100/125.

Phantom Lancer
- AGI gain decreased from 4.2 to 3.5
- Juxtapose illusion bonus damage taken increased from 350% to 400%

Shadow Shaman
-Hex mana cost reduced from 110/140/170/200 to 110/130/150/170

Spectre
- Haunt's cooldown improved from 120 seconds to 120/110/100 seconds
- Spectral Dagger mana cost decreased from 130/140/150/160 to 110/120/130/140

Tiny
- Toss mana cost reduced from 120 to 100

Undying
-Decay damage increase from 20/60/100/140 to 35/70/105/140
-Soul Rip heal/damage per unit increase from 25 to 30
Witch Doctor
-Paralyzing Cask stun duration increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds

Zues
-Lightning Bolt cooldown reduced to 5 seconds